Fear of crime is worse than crime itself

I feel I must write in response to the very alarmist letter from Ron Pollard (Observer, January 22) regarding levels of crime in Harrow.

Mr Pollard has seized upon the unfortunate incident in which an elderly lady died after being 'mugged' in Kenton as an opportunity to cause alarm and despondency,at the same time quite unjustifiably venting his spleen on the local police.

While in no way wishing to detract from the seriousness of the sad incident in Kenton, and at the same time offering my sincere condolences to the victim's relatives and friends, I have to point out that the borough of Harrow is the second safest borough in the whole of London, a fact of which Mr Pollard, as a member of the Harrow Police and Community Consultative Group, should have been aware.

Mr Pollard will no doubt raise the issue of the accuracy of crime reporting, but as the same reporting criteria pertain throughout the whole of London, the comparison is valid.

Mr Pollard should also be aware that the one thing that is as bad as, if not worse than crime itself,is the fear of crime,yet he has quite irresponsibly seized upon one tragic incident as an opportunity to unjustifiably stoke up fear among the residents of the borough, and unjustifed distrust of the local police.

I look forward to continuing this discussion with Mr Pollard at future meetings of the HPCCG.

EDWARD A RUDOLPH

Chairman Belmont Safer Neighbourhood

Ward Panel

Member Harrow Police and Community

Consultative Group Felbridge Avenue

Stanmore