Crime – Prevention is better than allowing crimes to occur

Clearly any crime committed is one too many but in the past few years there has been a move away from preventing more common crimes such as burglary and theft.

We have been left in a situation where too many people have their bikes stolen or cars broken into. Many crimes are either avoidable or severely reduced by a proactive input from both residents and local safer neighbourhood teams in Ealing borough.

Southfield Police team

Liberal Democrats say that part of this was due to the Mayor of London reducing the number of local police, meaning that there are fewer police who are dedicated to a local area. These teams played a vital role of liaising with residents’ associations and residents to gather intelligence and to sort out the problems affecting a particular ward or borough.

Now with smaller police teams, it means that less proactive advice is given for residents to reduce crime.

In the ward where I live, the local Southfield police team do a magnificent job. But this is only possible because groups of residents work together with the police to engage residents to pass on crime reduction advice. Some of the initiatives include:

• Promoting the take up of SmartWater which is used to mark valuables to both reduce burglary and if items are taken, they are more likely to be traced by the police.
• Having the largest Safer Neighbourhood Watch active schemes in the borough which means that police advice about local crimes or how to reduce crime is spread amongst residents more quickly.
• Free property surveys by the local police team. I had one of these when I moved into the area and the police gave lots of free advice on how I can easily reduce being a victim of crime.

Liberal Democrats say that cuts to the local police are bad and in many areas have led to increases in many types of crime. Ensuring we have enough local police is vital if we are to reduce many of the more easily preventable crimes.

I am proud that crime in Southfield is the lowest in the area. It would be wonderful if other areas of Ealing repeat what is working in Southfield so we can all have lower crime rates.