Police Pledge No Compromise on Local Security

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Crime patrols to remain high despite diversion of resources

Senior officers from the local police force have pledged that there will be no let up in the fight against crime despite the need to allocate resources to help in central London.

21 officers were dispatched to help with the aftermath of the terrorist attacks and there continues to be a high number of personnel working in Central London. However, these resources are not being taken from front-line policing and there has been an increase in high visibility patrols at local tube stations and other key public transport sites. A specialist 'bomb car' has been retained in the borough to help deal with potential terrorist threats.

In addition family liason officers from Hounslow Borough are currently working to help relatives of the victims of the attack.

In addition to enhancing security in the local area the police acted quickly to deal with the potential threat of race crimes as a result of the attacks. The Borough Commander, Ali Dizaei, addressed the congretation at the area's largest mosque on the day following the bombings and extra security has been introduced at faith premises which may have been potentially at risk. In the event, there have been fewer hate crimes in the last week than there were in the same period last year and none of them appear to be related to the attacks. As after September 11th, there has been no significant rise in this type of crime.

The police are grateful to the public for their response to requests not to ring through on non-urgent matters. Calls to the police fell sharply following the incident and they would request that members of the public continue to consider carefully whether a call to the police is strictly necessary. Minor crimes can be reported more quickly on-line.

There has been a sharp increase in the number of suspect packages in the borough. There have been 21 reports of this kind and police are asking members of the public to be especially careful about leaving their bags unattended. There has been one hoax call in the borough since the attack. The police say that they would deal with this type of crime very firmly.

July 15, 2005 12:32 PM