Tag: 2021

2021, highest rate of teenage homicide in London

We strongly urge all who work, live or talk with/to young people to remind them of the dangers of getting involved with anything illegal these days.

Most criminals aim to establish gangs, based on teenage and vulnerable persons’ who are used as mules and slave labour.

See **BBC article** on the 30th teenage killing in London this year.

Gangs can be seen as replacement family by youngsters to begin with. But, the pressures for ‘wrongdoing’ according to the gang code leads to corporal punishment and can result in death for the ‘wrongdoer’.

We know that parents are often unaware of their children’s involvement, but even if your child maintains, that they are not involved in gangs, persist on telling them of the dangers.

Do your children go out without going to a properly supervised activity, do they meet friends in the street? Are they evasive and don’t want to talk about things? Do you know of young people who tend to travel away from home for no apparent reason? Tell the police about this. Tell us about this, using our anonymous facility if you do not want to get involved.

We strongly advise that you check your children’s school bag for sharp objects or tablets. Children can be told by others in school that they need a knife to protect themselves.

For all who make their own decisions, please do not take out any knives with you when you are out. The person wanting to harm you, will do so, regardless.

Your best insurance against harm is not to get involved with anything that is not lawful. Gangs often get people involved and once you are involved, you are punished under the gang code.

So not getting involved is your best insurance to not suffer harm.

Finally, if you use illegal drugs, bought from dealers, you are contributing to the gang culture. The gang culture exists because the gang leaders can profit from the illegal trade.

Don't use drugs, join Neighbourhood Watch — **Join Neighbourhood Watch**

Where is the money gone?

A recent FOI request to MOPAC revealed that the Tower Hamlets Safer Neighbourhoods Board (SNB) has spent

£4,152 from 2018-19 establishing a Neighbourhood Watch Association
£3,000 from 2019-20 development of Neighbourhood Watch
£1,730 from 2020-21 development of Neighbourhood Watch

The only problem about this is, that to our knowledge, no Neighbourhood Watch Association was established by the SNB in Tower Hamlets. We have not found any evidence of such Association, nor been given any documentation or proof of any such organisation.

In contrast, we, the Tower Hamlets Neighbourhood Watch Association did not get one penny of those sums mentioned above, a total of £8,882. See our latest annual statement.

We want to know, ‘Where has all the money gone’?

We made many request for clarification with MOPAC, with the SNB, with one of our MPs Rushanara Ali and now also with police, which resulted in a CAD 1584 – 18/12/21

If anybody has any information about how the funding for Neighbourhood Watch was spent, please let us know. You can contact us or use our anonymous form. Please use reference CAD1584-18/12/21

It probably is typical for Tower Hamlets, with such high rates of crime that such problems occur.

We really would appreciate any funding, money you can spare, please donate, which will be used for Neighbourhood Watch in Tower Hamlets.

The terrible facts of violence in TH

These statistics show the terrifying rise of violence in Tower Hamlets since Nov 2019. It does not include the latest events over the holiday period as listed in the previous post.

Seeing the problem is the first step of tying to resolve it.

We’ve only just established as an organisation but feel that it is very necessary to have a working group to sift through the problems and potential solutions a community organisation like Neighbourhood Watch can bring onto the table.

Often events get buried in statistics, which hardly anybody ever looks at. Young people and all in general do not get made aware enough of how terrible a result violence has on human society. How getting involved in crimes, which use weapons and knives, has a downturn effect on their lives.

We have many good organisations, which provide help and assistance for those who seek it. However, what is concerning are the people who do not seek help out of the wheel of crime and violence and simply use violence against other people without trying a more civilised approach.

We think that more Neighbourhood Watch groups could help. Tower Hamlets does not have a lot. The Council concentrates on involving people in art, community groups around gardening and other leisure activities but not Neighbourhood Watch.

Please register with us, which would be a great start and help organise people who are interested into local groups. Then contact us and tell us what your main interests are.

Nida House could have been prevented

The death of an 11 year old girl could have been prevented with an active Neighbourhood Watch group in the building. We do not have any members signed up for Nida House.

Neighbourhood Watch groups meet with safety and community well-being in mind. They would talk about things that happen in their lives, community, dwellings and the storage of chemicals in a flat, could have emerged as a red-flag event, that a Neighbourhood Watch co-ordinator would have reported to the landlord and/or authorities.

That chemicals were stored in a flat would have concerned a Neighbourhood Watch coordinator.

Date & Time: 12/12/2021 00:27
CAD Number: 4966/11DEC21
Incident Type: Suspicious Death
Location: Nida House, Sutton Street, E1

Police are still looking to hear from people who have information about this, on the CAD number 4966/11DEC21. Ring 101 or report online to Met Police using, their website or twitter feed. You can also contact us anonymously about this.

We are desperately trying to convince local landlords to sign up with us to establish more Neighbourhood Watch groups in the area.

Unfortunately so far, Tower Hamlets Council mainly supports Residents groups, which are formed around social interaction like gardening, art and culture. The council does not promoted Neighbourhood Watch enough.

It is completely free of charge to register and build local Neighbourhood Watch groups but people usually only take this initiative if they are prompted by local leaders.

Registration with Ourwatch will regularly provide you with community safety alerts, crime prevention material and tools to build and maintain your Neighbourhood Watch group.

The BBC report about the event says: “Next to the rattling rails of the DLR tracks, one local resident told me of the “calm community” and his surprise at seeing lots of emergency vehicles arriving on Saturday.

The block of flats affected is private rented accommodation and nearby council properties are unaffected.”

We encourage all, who live and work in Tower Hamlets to sign up with us. Where there are housing providers who do not have yet Neighbourhood Watch groups established, we provide a service for them.

Hydra teaching at Met’s Hendon Academy

The famous Hendon Police Academy in Hendon, hosted a Hydra session for IAG members. The tech-driven teaching strategy provides a events simulator, which involves various agencies for problem solving. These tech suites are used to train police officers.

I met members of the Hackney IAG last Sunday.

Johanna Secretary/MSA of the borough association with Chief Inspector Scammell

IAG members can also be Neighbourhood Watch members. IAG consult on specific aspects of communal issues.

At this moment in time I am having problems location any details about the Tower Hamlets Independent Advisory Groups. I could find a query on the MOPAC website from 2006.

IAG groups give special advise on

Race
LGBT
Gypsy and Traveller
Youth
Disability
Trident
Gun crime in the Black Community
Sapphire (rape and sexual offending)
Safeguarding of children
Operation Blunt (knife crime)

I am awaiting actual details and shall up-date ASAP

Pledge to stop County Lines

As widely published today in the British media, Boris Johnson, has pledged to stop to break up 2,000 “county lines” drugs gangs in a £300 million drive to rid the country’s streets of illegal narcotics.

Among the measures in the strategy is an expansion of drug testing on arrest, with police encouraged to direct individuals who test positive towards treatment or other relevant interventions. See ITV report.

We started our ‘Stop taking drugs, stop supporting the drug dealers’ campaign three months ago. Definitely drugs trade will exist as long as it is profitable for drug dealers to make money from it.

Unfortunately drug users support this terrible trade by supporting exploitation of children for County Lines, which is a very violent gang driven crime syndicate. 90% of prison inmates are convicted in drug related crimes.

It is more than welcome that plans are made to also simultaneously interrupt social drugs use, which seems harmless and fun but fundamentally supports the drug gangs.

The promised £300 Million investment, to help addicts recover reports Sky News. The prime minister said: “Drugs are a scourge on our society, fuelling violence on our streets which communities across the country are forced to endure.”

The Independent reports that Drug users could loose passports. The Guardian also says driving licenses could also be lost if drug use continues.

Apparently testing has found drug deposits in the House of Commons and police may use sniffer dogs to search the meeting places for our MPs.

The previously published 10 year strategy under Tony Blair, see here, was not as effective or radical as the new one published by the Boris Johnson government.

BBC article promises there will be nowhere to hide.

Operation Sceptre

Tower Hamlets Police have sent us an up-date on the result of operation sceptre, an initiative designed to ramp up activity to suppress knife crime and wider violence

Met Communication

A vast range of activity was carried out by officers across the Met, including targeted patrols in violence hotspots; warrants to target high harm offenders; and weapons sweeps in areas known for stashed weapons.
Officers also worked closely with British Transport Police during knife arch deployments at transport hubs, aimed at deterring people from carrying weapons and drugs on the train and tube network. Automatic Number Plate Recognition technology was also used by Met and City of London officers, targeting those carrying and supplying drugs on the roads in and out of London.
Crucially, there was also a focus on education, diversion and prevention, with officers engaging with 10,563 young people; community members and business owners.
While conducting community weapons sweeps, local officers worked side-by-side with community members, listening to their concerns and searching for hidden or discarded weapons. Officers, Met Special Constables and Volunteer Police Cadets also carried out 290 retailer visits to educate businesses and ensure they were not – and do not in the future – selling knives irresponsibly.
In total, the operation, which ran from Monday, 15 November to Sunday, 21 November 2021, resulted in (Met-Wide):
• 290 knives recovered;
• 937 arrests;
• 82 warrants executed;
• 186 community meetings and educational events, engaging with 1,206 individuals;
• 264 school presentations and engagements, involving 8,063 young people;
• 2,745 weapon sweeps.
We wanted to let you know our local results for this week of intensification, for Tower Hamlets and Hackney,
which are as follows:
137 weapon sweeps.
13 knives found.
51 arrests with 11 for weapon offences.
18 test purchases
We visited all of our Habitual Knife Carriers who were engaged with by our integrated gangs unit or Violence Suppression Unit.

Over 1200 children engaged with through schools presentations or the Junior Citizenship Programme.
Our local plan was led by our Violence Suppression Unit and supported by partners at both Tower Hamlets and Hackney local authorities. We send our gratitude to all of our partners who supported the initiatives across the week.

Please also note you are welcome to report anonymously to the Tower Hamlets Neighbourhood Watch Association directly using our online form.

All faiths welcome

Also people who do not have a faith are welcome.

The Tower Hamlets Interface Forum brought people from different religions and communities together with speakers from various organisations.

It’s really important that all stand together and repel attempts to attack communities or groups of another faith. Nothing should stop anybody to report suspicious behaviour to the police.

Our stall at the #Interfaithweek

Bridge over Troubled Water

event was well stocked with information about worldly danger and solutions.

**Speakers: Mayor John Biggs, Neighbours in Poplar, East London Mosque, Quaker Social Action, Tower Hamlets Public Health & Faith Action**

One attendee loved this ‘Power of Hello’ poster because they recognised their language.

Community meeting

With Commander Marcus Barnett and Chief Inspector Christopher Scammell, was held simultaneously at Whitechapel Library and Microsoft Teams.

Commander Barnett and Chief Inspector Scammell

We heard that people sometimes think their crime reports do not get actioned.

Another questioned asked whether Crimestoppers reports get priority. This was answered with: “

” In regards to reports Crimestoppers; All information we receive is risk assessed and graded so we can provide a suitable response. All sources are treated equally.”

Hence anonymous reports received via our local reporting page, get fed into the system alongside all other reports.

The Ward panels were mentioned as important community tool when ascertaining 2 out of 3 police priorities. It cannot be said often enough that systematic engagement with Neighbourhood Watch groups, enables strong continued and consistent community relationships with the police and other partners, who work together with the Tower Hamlets Partnership.

Violence against Women and Girls has four sections:

Protecting women and girls in public spaces
working with our partners and with women to improve prevention
Bringing offenders to justice
Improving Met culture and professional standards

Commander Barnett apologised profusely for the conduct of a former police officer who was sentenced for the brutal murder of a woman. By enlarge, he said the police is a superb organisation, which can be relied upon. Whilst Commander Barnett assured us that a culture change in the police is necessary, we saw a whole male line-up, the Neighbourhood Watch representative, which was female, was not allowed to speak.

Community Partnership policing

Antisocial behaviour / problem solving
Night time economy action plans
Bike thefts
School & youth engagement team
local enforcement teams
housing
environment
DWO’s and Ward Panels
Independent Advisory groups
Accessibility to police

The closure of the Isle of Dogs police station was remarked upon by a member of the public. It is presumed that many older people do not have access or knowledge of new technology to report crime online. However, we do not feel that it is a viable alternative for older people to visit a police station in person to report crime.

The Police do not agree that LTN schemes stop them from attending duty.

We feel that local Neighbourhood Watch groups can provide the necessary support to support locals who need it about reporting and working together with police.

Neighbourhood Watch embraces all new technologies and face to face methods. Neighbourhood Watch groups also enable local people to meet on demand and more often than the ward panels who often only meet every 3-4 months. Peer to peer meetings with neighbours are important.

Say No to ASB

Free Webinar “Say no to ASB” on 15. November 2021, click through to our event calendar.

Don’t forgot to register with Ourwatch Neighbourhood Watch membership.

Please click through to read further details about our aim to tackle ASB in all areas of Britain, which saw an increase with the relaxing of Covid restrictions.

We have a new, comprehensive ASB diary for download, which lasts for 14 days. It contains comprehensive examples and instructions for you to follow.

Visit the Tower Hamlets specific web pages of the local Association here.

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Met Communication

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Bridge over Troubled Water

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Violence against Women and Girls has four sections:

Community Partnership policing

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