Success for campaign

THE streets of Wanstead and Woodford are safer now that police officers are back in the police stations.

In the last three months street crime in the west of Redbridge has plummeted and Redbridge Borough Commander Mick Johnson says reopening the stations is one of four factors which have contributed to the drop in crime.

In August, Chief Superintendent Johnson decided to patrol officers out of both police stations. He reviewed the situation following a high profile Open Up! campaign mounted by the Guardian to improve policing in the area.

And crime figures for October, November and December show street crime decreasing by 28 per cent, burglary dropping by 20 per cent and car crime falling by 29 per cent, despite the Metropolitan Police predicting a 23 per cent increase in those types of crimes.

Mr Johnson says reverting to old fashioned policing methods, like putting bobbies back on the beat and using specialist teams to crack down on crime hotspots and tackling long-term problems head on has helped curtail the crime rise.

Figures released this month by the Metropolitan Police show muggings, burglary and car crime increased by 17 per cent from September 2001 to September 2002.

But now nine police officers are working out the two stations the level of crime on the streets has dropped and response times to emergency calls improved.

Mr Johnson said: "The biggest thing we have noticed is an improvement in response time to 999 calls.

"Before the stations opened we were only hitting our target of getting to an emergency call in 12 minutes 60 per cent of the time. Now it is 70 to 80 per cent.

"We have also introduced high visibility policing which has been effective.

"Wanstead High Street was part of our Operation Festive initiative which was a proactive scheme to cut crime in Redbridge over the Christmas period. It saw 30 extra officers being put on the streets."

While he is unable to promise a complete eradication of crime Mr Johnson said he was 100 per cent committed to fighting it.

He said: "I cannot guarantee no crime. I will guarantee that I, and my officers, will continue to give a 100 per cent effort in preventing crime where possible, dealing with the victims of crime to a high standard and adopting tactics in order to capture those who commit crime."

The stations will come under review this March.

15:27 Thursday 23rd January 2003

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