The quest for Harrow to become the safest borough in London has been accomplished.

A proud borough commander Simon Ovens congratulated his officers on their hard work on Wednesday last week at a Neighbourhood Champions conference in the Kadwa Patidar Centre, in Kenmore Avenue, Harrow.

He said to rapturous applause: “As I stand here today, I can tell you that you live in the safest borough in London.

“It took us about a year to get to where we wanted to be, and we’ve now maintained that position.”

Community spirit: Simon Ovens

In June last year, Mr Ovens issued a ‘call to arms’ to getwestlondon readers and volunteers across the Harrow community to help his officers go from being the seventh safest to the first in statistical analysis backed by the Mayor of London Boris Johnson.

The crimes calculated in the ranking are:

  1. Violence with injury
  2. Robbery
  3. Theft from person
  4. Burglary
  5. Theft of motor vehicle
  6. Theft from motor vehicle
  7. Criminal damage

Mr Ovens revealed that in five of the last six months Harrow had been ranked as the safest based on these crimes.

He said: “I came here to Harrow with this mantra of wanting to become the safest borough in London, but at the same time I always said I wasn’t going to be able to do it alone.

“The volunteer ethos in this borough, including Neighbourhood Champions, but also my police cadets and voluntary officers who really put the hours in, has helped us get to where we are.

“This accomplishment belongs to us all.”

You can read Simon Ovens’ ‘On the beat’ column every Thursday morning on getwestlondon.