Our newly trained officers are now coming in thick and fast, fresh out of training.

The plan is to send them all to neighbourhood bases after a 10 week period of enhanced local training. 

The Street Duties course is fully operational, visible and on the streets. It is designed to make them match fit to serve the community in a short period. For the first five weeks the officers are partnered with experienced staff, and then the second five weeks they patrol alone.

They will always be on foot and are tasked into high footfall areas notably Harlesden, Wembley and Willesden town centres. If you see them please speak to them.

As you may have read, the threat from ISIL in Syria and Iraq is having an impact in the West and the UK threat level has recently been raise to ‘severe’. Although the government is clear there is no intelligence to suggest an attack is imminent, the police have stepped up Counter Terrorism activity.

Over the last two weeks we have been delivering briefings to our business community reinforcing the message regarding the conflict in Syria and Iraq.  Our staff are briefed on recognising the signs of radicalisation and the potential of British extremists travelling abroad to fight.

We are working notably with the Jewish community in relation to the high Holy Days and with the Muslim community to reassure and identify any safety issues and concerns these communities may harbour.

I would ask all of you to keep a close ear to the ground and to contact us if you have any information you think may be relevant.

To reassure you, Brent as well as most other London Boroughs has not identified any significant rise in community concerns.

Changing the tack, slightly, we have been busy targeting those criminals who cause most harm to our people. In the last week we have arrested numerous burglars, robbers and violent individuals include those responsible for domestic abuse.

This week we convicted a burglar, Sonny Bruce, 36. He was arrested by Brent officers who witnessed him committing a residential burglary in Station Parade, Whitchurch Lane, Edgware.

Bruce has been on remand since he was arrested and charged on May 20. The judge has told him that he is likely to be jailed for between four and five years when he is sentenced in November.

The borough had been suffering a spate of residential burglaries, mainly in NW2 and NW6 areas. Once inside the premises the suspect has taken car keys and stolen high value cars. Last week following a surveillance operation we arrested two men for conspiracy to commit burglary and theft. We recovered two stolen mopeds on false plates and concealed in the seat area of one of the stolen bikes was a long handled screwdriver that they had used using to force open windows. I am pleased to say, so far, there have been no further linked crimes.

In response to challenges around burglary and motor vehicle crime in the NW2 area the borough has been running Operation Glacier.

This has seen officers from the combined Safer Neighbourhoods Teams of Willesden Green, Mapesbury and Dollis Hill target these areas through the late evening and night.

The three teams efforts began in late August and continue with some excellent results to date.

There have been 24 arrests with an additional 19 people caught in possession of drugs. Notable arrests include a male arrested for rape in Cricklewood Broadway, a convicted burglary caught in possession of a knife in Watling Gardens who is currently on remand awaiting trial, two men arrested for possession with intent to supply cannabis after a warrant executed in Chapter Road and a youth caught with bolt croppers in the process of stealing a pedal cycle in Brondesbury Park.

The teams are in line with what their community ward panels specifically asked them to target and are having an impact on issues that directly affect people’s lives.

As always, please remember Brent is on the whole a safe place to live and work. If you see my officers, please speak to them. Hopefully they will speak to you. We are here to help.