Message from the Borough Commander Simon Rose:
“I wanted to update you on some changes you might not have noticed, some you will and some that I would like to help you avoid.
“Firstly, you may be aware from the Commissioner’s recent announcement the Met police will soon be moving to a new structure with one Borough Commander for three Boroughs.
“For us it will be Barnet, Brent and Harrow that will be brigaded. Local policing will however remain very largely unchanged.
“There will still be two dedicated ward officers and one PCSO (Police Community Safety Officer) per ward and these officers will remain the day-to-day point of contact for local issues.
“There will administrative changes behind the scenes but you should notice very little change. Where I hope you are starting to see the changes will be if you live, work in or travel to Burnt Oak.
“We have been working with Barnet Council to get the alley gating around the steps to Watling Market authorised and securing Criminal Behaviour Orders (CBOs) against persistent offenders.
“The Public Space Protection Order (PSPO) is now in force and the Council has done a lot of work to reduce littering and proactively direct problem street drinkers into treatment.
“There is still more to do, but I hope residents have already started to notice the difference in the community as a result of these actions.
“Finally, an area we want to help people avoid becoming a victim of is cybercrime. There has been a sustained increase in this area – from various types of online fraud, to online hate crime and various types of ‘phishing’ or email scams.
“As with all crime, prevention is always easier than the cure.
“Here are a few things to help keep you safe:
- Ensure your virus protection is up to date
- Be aware of the latest scams by regularly checking actionfraud. police.uk or speaking to your local Safer Neighbourhood team who you can contact via met.police.uk.”