FOR those of you that have not seen the paper last week I am saddened to report the death of one of our Special Constables, Jamal Moghe.
Jamal was killed on January 12 while travelling in Kenya.
As well as carrying out his duties as a Special Constable in Brent since 2010, Jamal worked as a criminal exhibits officer for Ealing Borough.
Like many other Special Constabulary officers, Jamal gave up his own time to protect the community in which he lived. Our thoughts are with his wife and family at this time.
Last week I met with Christine Gilbert, the new interim chief executive of Brent Council to discuss how we can continue and further improve our combined efforts to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour within Brent.
Christine and I had similar ideas and thoughts and I look forward to a continued strong working relationship with her over the coming months to jointly deliver better services to the people we serve – you!
Brent Youth Teams have recently been re-formed and are working extremely hard to forge links with the secondary schools within Brent.
The teams have made a series of presentations on knife crime within local schools.
They are currently tackling the issue of cyber bullying by offering presentations across the borough.
Officers from the unit investigate all school related offences, ranging from minor playground disagreements to robberies, and in December they put a stop to a series of robberies which were occurring in the Alperton area.
Through the links that they have forged, the team has been able to recruit more police cadets, who are afforded all sorts of activities that give them life-long skills they would not be able to obtain elsewhere.
Activities include physically challenging weekends doing command tasks and mental agility exercises; raising their own funds to subsidise their activities; the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Scheme; and achieving a BTEC Level 2 in public services. Details of how to join are on the website at the bottom of this page.
Over the coming weeks Brent police officers are taking part in Operation Goliath – a Met Police operation that will target criminals through the use of Automatic Number Plate Reader (ANPR) cameras.
The use of ANPR is high on the commissioner’s agenda as it is a very effective tactic in the Met’s Total War on Crime.
Our officers routinely use ANPR technology, but this operation is a concerted effort to maximise the arrest and disruption of criminals, and to seize uninsured vehicles.
As well as using information from the Police National Computer our officers are also able to identify and deal with vehicles that have been involved in suspicious activity within Brent.
Although it needs a lot of officers to run these operations successfully (up to 200 officers a day across the Met), we are committed to using the best tactics and technology to bear down on the criminals operating in our communities.
You may have seen the results of Operation Grissino in last week’s news – an operation targeting suspected gang members in Brent, in the South Kilburn area.
Fifteen dawn raids took place across Brent and crack cocaine, cannabis factories, heroin, weapons and a quantity of bank notes were among the items seized by officers.
It is always distressing to see and understand how young people can throw their potential away by getting involved in such activity.
We do a lot of work with partners to entice young men and women away from this lifestyle but sometimes it simply does not work and we have to take a firm stance.
At the end of the day, this is what my officers and staff are here to do, to address behaviour when all other efforts fail, and it is working – stabbings and shootings in London continue to fall, with overall youth violence down by more than 28 per cent. This means 1,557 fewer young victims from knife or gun wounds.
My message to gang members is simply this: If you are willing to change your ways, then we will work closely with you to help you leave a gang and direct your energy into something more positive.
However, if you choose to continue living a gang-related criminal lifestyle then we will target you and every aspect of your criminality.
If you have any information about gang crime or those involved call Crimestoppers, an independent charity, anonymously on 0800 555111. In an emergency always dial 999.
