> Neighbourhood Policing > London South > Richmond Neighbourhood Policing Team

Meet your local team

Inspector Gordon Tait

PS Ino Lobo

PC Jonathan Prettejohns

PC Daniel Brown

PC Julian Mason

PC Alex Morgan

Current neighbourhood policing priorities

1. Cycle thefts

The incidence of cycle related crimes on rail stations patrolled by the Richmond NPT has shown a reduction. The stations at Richmond, Twickenham, Staines, Wokingham, Windsor & Eton Riverside, Mortlake and Feltham continue being the ones affected. Since the beginning of 2012 we have had on an average one cycle a month stolen at these stations. The stand out station though is Staines where we have had six cycles stolen in last three months.

Actions

The NPT is working hard to combat this:

A number of specific policing tasks requiring intelligence-led uniformed and plain clothes police patrols are being carried out.
Regular live CCTV monitoring of railway station cycle racks is being conducted.
Crime prevention measures such as cycle surgeries where advice is given and cycles are protectively marked are being held and will increase. The number of such surgeries will be further enhanced as from 10 March 2012 our NPT Cycle SPOC will be holding such surgeries and officers of the NPT will themselves be marking cycles rather than solely depending on our hard pressed Crime Prevention team to attend our stations.
As of 08 March 2012 we will have two of our NPT officers trained to deploy tracker bikes to better deal with the problems of cycle thefts.

Results

Since January 2012 to 05 March 2012 there have been eight arrests of cycle theft suspects operating in the NPT area. These arrests were made by the specialist London South Cycle Squad. The icing to these good results is the arrests made by NPT officers who have in the last three months arrested four cycle theft suspects. Two of the four arrested by NPT officers were caught in the act with the stolen property. The other two were recognised from cctv footage by NPT officers on patrol duties and arrested. The latest arrest was on 05 March 2012.

As of 05 March 2012 NPT officers have seized 67 unsecured cycles. These have been retrieved and retained for possible collection by their owners. These cycles are checked to ensure that they are not related to any reported crimes.

Signage has been improved at all our stations, especially at the cycle theft hotspots.

2. Anti-Social Behaviour and adults using child tickets to travel

SW Trains staff and members of the travelling public have identified that a large number of people aged 16 and over are travelling using child tickets. There is also an ongoing problem with low level public disorder and we are mounting a concerted and determined campaign to combat this.

Actions

The team has been working closely with South West Trains Revenue and Rail Community Officers conducting high visibility patrols to identify the hotspots and prevent these problems.
Regular joint working operations are being held at our hot spot stations and these have begun to show results with each occasion resulting in fewer instances of fare evasion being recorded.
The NPT is also looking into initiating poster campaigns to highlight these issues.
All three London SW Area NP Teams: Wimbledon, Clapham Junction and Richmond conducted joint operations over the months of February and early March to police specific trains on lines which experience above average low level disorder issues. The exercise was named Op Abel and has evoked excellent comments from affected train staff. This will be re-commenced after a short break. The last such operation was held in the first week of March 2012.

Results

In 2011-12, a number of joint operations with SW Trains Revenue Protection Inspectors, Rail Community Officers and on board Commercial Guards are being conducted and these have resulted in a large number of people travelling without valid tickets being appropriately dealt with; resulting in either prosecutions or penalty fares being issued.
The patrols initiated by NPT officers both uniformed and in plain clothes have had a good effect and in the process resulted in officers charging, reporting, cautioning, administering final warnings, reprimanding or issuing fixed penalty notices to a significant number of offenders.
The offences range from low level public disorder to assaults, thefts and possession of drugs.
The number of people approaching officers to express their appreciation for their presence and actions has noticeably increased.

3. Trespass at Feltham Level Crossing

There have been reports from station staff of low level public order issues, especially late at nights. There also appears to be an increase in people exiting the station via the platform cattle grids.

Actions

The team have been conducting increased high visibility patrols and have been issuing on-the-spot fines. It is our intention to keep up this heightened presence for the present.
The team have been linking in with the CCTV controllers to monitor the problem.
A number of high profile joint operations with Metropolitan Police and the SW Trains RPIs and RCOs have been planned and carried out. The latest one was on 03 March 2012 where a large number of Metropolitan Police Special Officers with BTP Special Officers, London South Core Team officers, NPT officers and a passive drugs dog were present. It was very successful resulting in arrests from drugs possession to fare evasion and there was even one arrest of an absconding suspect for whom a wanted police was in circulation.
With a recent increase in such incidents, specially later in the evenings, the NPT will re-focus our attention and schedule and target the station for later evening/late night patrols.

Results