Policing in your neighbourhood

It seems that regular community police parading in ones local area in London has become a thing of the of the past for ever.

Community Police on our streets would help hinder many crimes and this would certainly be cost affective in the long run.

I feel that there are just not enough on the beat police anymore, where I live in NW London we have a real problem on our estate with anti social behaviour, drugs and burglary. You never see the police patrol our area simply because there are not enough of them, and when you report something they often have nobody to attend so these groups are allowed to carry on terrifying the community and being involved in criminal activity right on our doorstep and nothing is done to deal with it. I've made a formal complaint to my local authority (Brent) over a month ago which hadn't even been acknowledged, it's a disgrace that people's lives can be disrupted on a daily basis and yet nobody cares about dealing with the issues. I wish to god I could move, but that's impossible, I'm disabled and yet get no support from my housing authority and don't have the funds to rent privately. It comes to something when you don't feel safe in your own home.

It seems that the essence of the majority of comments is that there needs to be higher visibility of police in most areas. There is simply no substitute for "feet on the street". The presence of a local police officer acts as a deterrent to anti-social behaviour, and the local officer knows most of what is going on and who is perpetrating it!

We need to:
(a) eliminate the mountains of paperwork,
(b) get more police on the streets where anti-social behaviour is a problem, and
(c) follow up on all reported crime/ASB.

What is the point of spending large sums of money on politicians to enact laws that are not enforced?

It is obvious from reading many of the comments on here that as far as many London residents are concerned the police are failing to meet the wish for a local visible police presence on the streets and particularly in residential areas.
Whereas this demand can be met in rich neighbourhoods by the use of private security guards paid for by the local residents,the rest of us are left to endure anti social behaviour and vandalism that the Metropolitan Police do not have the inclination or resources to tackle.
The Safe Neighbourhood Programme will only work if sufficient money and resources are put in to the project and a physical police presence is visible in the neighbourhood on a regular basis.
I live in a residential suburb of Camden and in 16 years living here I have never seen a police officer or CSO on foot patrol.
Feet on the ground would be a good start.

More police at night in every neigbourhood. Also undercover police in street alleyways and residential areas . It will be easier to spot trouble makers. Also they should be hidden cameras in parks . So if anything happen they have evidence to back up the crime. Safety is important .

Neighbourhood Policing started off so well and raised expectations that there would be police officers VISIBLE on our streets.Over the years,this has become something of a luxury.One cannot blame our officers when numbers have been depleted constantly,year on year.The public feel betrayed and let down.It all boils down to finance.People feel unsafe even if the area is not crime ridden because they fear criminals could get away with crime simply because there is no police officer to deter/protect them.I know this sounds like a piped dream but this is the reality.

Neighbourhood Policing means exactly that.Officers attached to your Ward who become familiar friendly faces and win your trust so you end up implementing their advice,This in turn prevents people becoming victims of crime and allows the community to become the eyes and ears the Metropolitan Police so desperately rely on for Intelligence---especially with terrorism on the radar.It's all about developing a relationship of trust with local communities and neighbourhoods.The "Bobby on the Beat is invaluable".In fact,having uniformed presence is such a brilliant investment.Cutting down on frontline officers is a false economy in every imaginable way.
Another thing,we are being promised two DEDICATED WARD OFFICERS per Ward.Of course,the public expects DEDICATED to mean exactly that but experience shows they are always beeing abstracted for Public Order events or emergencies outside their own Ward/Borough.This makes the public very skeptical of what is promised and what is actually delivered.It does not help build trust or confidence and only helps criminals to flourish and take advantage of vulnerable communities who feel they have been abandoned.

However much our local officers try to engage at various venues and do whatever they can with limited resources the public end up feeling nobody is protecting them unless they see them walking down our streets.Any promise made must be kept or not made at all.You must say what you mean and mean what you say!!

Only when you put this into practice will communities feel more confident and come closer together.TRUST is the glue which holds everything securely in place.Neighbourhood Policing holds a very important place in Community Policing.It is the key to its ultimate success.

I live in East London near Whitechapel. I don't feel safe at around my area as there are no police around. There needs to be police patrolling more as there is no CCTV cameras only one police station that I know which is Limehouse. Neighbourhood policing would definitely benefit around my area as alot of dealing, stealing harassment goes on without no one coming forward.

I also live on the edge of a borough, miles away from the now only police station in the entire borough, where I have been told that if there are 14 police officers on duty per shift, they are doing well, 14 it is disgusting , the borough has a population of nearly 300,000 people, how do we expect to get a response, all SNT ,s lie closed. The police stations we used to have are restaurants, flats, being knocked down, or worse been boarded up eyesores for years. The police are, damned if they do and damned if they don,t. My friends daughter wanted to join, but has to pay for herself to do a policing certificate at college, and they are talking about needing a degree, why? Hendon us being knocked down and they are building, oh yes MORE flats, who will keep ALL of these people safe. I did this survey against my better judgement, and it focuses on fgm, hate crime and terrorism, yes all important, but if we do not police asb, where it all starts with young people, what about burglary, robbery, knife crime, driving uninsured cars with no driving licences, should this not be priority too, surely if you top down, nothing will ever get done. Why would anyone want yo join today's police, rubbish wages, continual criticism, being threatened and assaulted for doing your job. Never getting a day off, being kept on for hours, while idiots in mask run amok around London, openly threatening to hurt Poluce?. We can spend billions on HS2 and cycle "superhighways" while hardly having any police available or visible on the streets of London. We need to get our priorities right, and Sadiq actually keep us safe instead of just procrastinating about it. Rant over

I live on a main arterial road in a in a residential area of Camden NW1 and have lived here for almost 16 years.
I cannot recall the last time that I saw a police officer on foot patrol ,they just race by with sirens screaming and blue lights flashing.
Whatever happened to boots on the ground ?
It is all very well talking about dedicated neighbourhood police officers but where are they ?

I live in Islington. I agree with other posts that I would like to see more on-street police presence, and I believe that it's possibly true that the police are insufficiently funded to provide this.
However, almost every night I am disturbed by police helicopters flying overhead at all times of the night/early hours of the morning. This seems like a preposterous waste of police resources; it's difficult to get hold of any evidence of any significant reduction in crime rates that result from this, although I could give plenty of evidence of disturbed sleep for myself and other residents.
If helicopters were called upon in response to a specific incident, then I could understand it, but to aimlessly fly around disturbing residents to act as some form of alleged deterrent just seems like a complete waste of time and money.