Last week we celebrated the first anniversary of Harrow’s Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH), which was set up especially to help vulnerable young people in the borough.

The essence of MASH is to bring key, safeguarding professionals together, to ensure that the most vulnerable young people across the borough get the best possible care.

Harrow was one of the first boroughs in London to establish a MASH; a unit consisting of police officers, police staff, social workers, health and drugs workers working under one roof, to ensure that important information relating to young and vulnerable people is shared effectively between all the agencies and acted upon quickly.

The concept of this partnership approach has proved to be invaluable and we look forward to further successes in the coming years.

In policing, there are never two days the same and nothing pleases police officers more than giving the best possible service to victims of crime and bringing the perpetrators of those crimes to justice.

Most allegations of crime are genuine and are treated very seriously and investigated thoroughly. Unfortunately, however, there are times when people make false allegations and waste police time.

This week a 31-year-old man from Dunstable was charged with telecoms offences after being arrested in Harrow town centre for making false 999 calls to police.

A man made at least four false emergency calls, all on the same day. In one of the calls he was alleging that he was being attacked by a group of people; in another he was threatening to injure himself.

CCTV operators were monitoring the location the man provided to police and when officers rushed to the scene, it soon became apparent that things were not as straight forward as they seemed.

The man was not in any immediate danger from an attack, or suffering from any injuries. Making a false allegation of crime is not only a serious offence, but wastes valuable police time that can be better spent dealing with genuine victims and investigating real crimes.

Anyone found to be making a false allegation of crime will be arrested and prosecuted.

With the price of metal soaring, scrap metal has become a valuable commodity to thieves who, in their quest to obtain it, often leave structures unsafe, therefore endangering lives.

This week a 43-year-old man from Edgware and a 30-year-old man from Hemel Hempstead were arrested on suspicion of theft after a member of the public called us to say they had spotted a man on the roof of an old church in Buckingham Road, Edgware.

The member of the public watched as a man stripped the lead off the roof and threw it down to his accomplice below, before hiding it in some bushes. Police arrived and after a drive around in the area, two men were arrested nearby.

A search of the suspects’ homes was carried out and a quantity of lead was found at a house in Edgware.

Another great example of the community and police working together to tackle crime in Harrow.

Officers from Greenhill Safer Neighbourhoods team carried out a search warrant at an address in St Anne’s Road, Harrow, and found several laptops and electronic tablets which they believed to be stolen.

The items were seized but officers were unable to identify them as being stolen and further work is ongoing. Please remember to register all your valuables and electronic items at www.immobilise.com.

By doing so you will make the information available to all UK police forces so they can identify the owners of lost and stolen property instantly.

Our colleagues from Lewisham contacted us this week, asking for our assistance in locating a high risk, missing teenager and her four month old baby, whom they believed to have connections to the Harrow area.

The duty inspector, wanting to get the message out as quickly as possible, sent the teenager’s details to our Neighbourhood Champions and Harrow Council employees, reaching more than 900 people within a targeted area in the first instance of us receiving this request.

She was just about to send the message out wider through our Twitter account when we were notified that the teenager and her baby had been found safe and well.

On speaking to the duty inspector afterwards, she said that it gave her confidence, knowing that we have dedicated Neighbourhood Champions in the borough who we can call upon in situations like this.

If you would like to read more about becoming a Neighbourhood Champion go to www.harrow.gov.uk/neighbourhoodchampions.

We’ve had a few reports recently of burglary suspects climbing on to wheelie bins which have been left at the front of properties to gain access to the rear garden in order to break in.

If possible, keep your bin behind a locked garden gate and only leave out on collection day.

Please remember to lock your vehicle when you leave it unattended. Last week we had quite a few reports from people who had left their vehicles unlocked and returned to find items they had left in the car stolen.

Let’s not make life easy for criminals.