Chief Superintendent on the Challenges of Policing Chiswick
Borough Commander David Bilson talks to ChiswickW4.com
Born and bred in West London, David Bilson joined the MPS in 1978. In 1992 he won a scholarship to study a Master’s Degree in Business Administration before returning to uniform duties in the role of Operational Duty Inspector and then as Sector Inspector.
He was promoted to Chief Inspector in 1998 before moving to New Scotland Yard. In 2001 he was promoted to Superintendent and then to Chief Superintendent in 2004. In 2007, he was appointed Borough Commander of Hounslow and he took some time out of his schedule to talk to Emma Brophy.
“One of the pressing concerns I have is making sure we develop positive and active relationships with both newly arrived communities and more developed communities.”
“For example one of our challenges is that some members of the Polish community want a casual, transient work pattern. They want to come and go freely and this makes it hard for us to support them. They often don’t feel confident about reporting crime which, in the long term, makes them a target for organised crime. I am concerned that there are communities here that won’t come and converse with us. The challenge is how do I gain the confidences of these communities?”
“Our Safer Neighbourhood Teams have a certain amount of training in these issues but it’s not bespoke. What I have is a great team of people with the aptitude and skills for this kind of work. For example we have an excellent officer, Karmjit Rekhi, who liaises with faith groups building and maintaining relationships across the borough.”
David recently returned from secondment to Police Executive Research Forum in Washington DC, USA, where he was a senior research fellow looking at policing issues, operations and solutions, including counter terrorism, violence and police agency management.
“It was a great privilege to be able to spend six months in the states learning about how police there deal with issues like violent crime and gang culture. But the idea is not to come back and impose a US style of policing on the people of Chiswick, but to use some of the ideas and develop these when dealing with local issues for example gangs.”
Hounslow Borough is in its fourth year of overall crime reduction, how will this be sustained?
“The MET has got smarter with analytical data and crime analysis which is one of the factors helping to sustain this reduction. We have an excellent crime analyst here in Hounslow who can analyse incidents by location, type, time which creates a detailed crime matrix thus enabling us to deploy the right resources at the right time.”
Being just one town in such a diverse borough, what are the main challenges of policing Chiswick?
“Chiswick is a challenge of policing success. It’s a thriving town, a very popular business, entertainment and residential location that is increasingly a night-time economy. The challenge is provide a service to maintain peace and prevent crime round the clock. It is a low crime area and we need to sustain that and beyond that ensure that people who live and work there feel safe.
“I am not complacent for a second about the crime that is there which is low level robbery, burglary and motor vehicle crime. The challenge for us is to get those levels lower and lower and I am delighted there are such active residents and business groups there that want to engage in keeping Chiswick safe.”
“Gangs are an issue but there are small in number and for most part at the lower end of criminality. My concern is if we don’t work out how to respond as a citizenry, this could get worse. We are currently working with the local authority on a development framework for dealing with gangs in its widest concept. Officers are being training in youth development, gang dispersal techniques etc. It’s a considerable piece of work but one that faces every Borough Commander. We are fortunate that the situation here is not so severe that we are under immediate pressure therefore allowing us to build a long term project over the next few years.”
How well can you police Chiswick from headquarters in Hounslow?
“I maintain my headquarters in Hounslow for two reasons. The first is that it’s central to the borough; the second is that the local authority is here also so it makes sound business sense. But that doesn’t mean that I am not interested in Chiswick.”
“Chiswick has four Safer Neighbourhood Teams which will stay, a front counter service which will also stay. The borough’s Crime Management Unit is based in Chiswick as is the Telephone Investigation Bureau based, the personnel department and training unit which serve the whole borough and there is a custody facility. By no means do I see Chiswick as a quiet by water, but a place that delivers a police service to the borough.”
“I can understand that some people are reluctant to become a witness in a criminal prosecution but I would always encourage citizens to report crimes or incidents because if we don’t have the information and are able to identify crime patterns, we cannot make the correct deployment of officers to the areas where they are needed.”
Emma Brophy
September 27, 2007
