Officers form temporary squad to police shopping centre
Shepherd’s Bush Green ward officers have been taken away from their regular duties to police Westfield, ShepherdsBushW12.com has learnt.
Four officers and one police sergeant from the Shepherd’s Bush Green Safer Neighbourhood Team (SNT), plus one officer from each of the five response teams across the Borough, were brought together into a squad to police the shopping centre in the first five weeks of its existence.
Police say the temporary squad have been working on crime and anti-social behaviour in the vicinity of Westfield.
“Westfield falls within the Shepherd's Bush Green Ward and therefore comes under the geographic responsibility of the 24/7 SNTs,” said Inspector Bill Heasman. “We therefore do have a duty to police this area in the same way that we have a duty to police the rest of the ward.
“Far from taking officers away from the ward, the formation of the squad has meant there have been far more officers on the streets over the past five weeks than usual. No other SNTs have been affected by this,” he said. He said crime had not risen elsewhere on the ward as a result of the move.
Some residents in the Shepherd’s Bush Green area have questioned why police resources have been diverted into Westfield. “It’s ridiculous,” said Devon Richards who lives right next to the shopping centre. “They’ve got all the security over there and we’ve got nothing. They’ve got criminals running out of Westfield and they come into our gardens. I’m worried about my wife and children. If it’s not parking, it’s crime,” he said.
However, the Chairman of the Shepherd's Bush Market Tenants' Association, James Horada, said that although the Market had struggled with crime in the past, there hadn’t been any noticeable increase in criminal activity over the past few weeks: “At the moment things are okay, we are all right,” he said. “I presume that if they (the Shepherd’s Bush Green SNT officers) were absorbed for too long a time, things might decline. Despite these officers being absorbed into Westfield, the overall work they’ve done (in the Market) over the past 12 months is paying off. We are not seeing the problems that we used to,” he said.
Police say the large number of officers deployed on the shopping centre's opening day and the first weekend were paid for by Westfield, as were the officers who patrolled the site perimeter in the final few weeks of the build. They say they asked for an increase in staff to deal with the huge influx of people into the area, but were turned down and had to manage the extra demand from their existing resources.
Shepherd’s Bush Green Ward has an enhanced Safer Neighbourhood team, financed by the Council. H&F say they are happy for police resources to be diverted into Westfield as a short-term measure but say they hope that ultimately, more resources will be brought in from elsewhere. They say they have no control over police operational matters.
The five week period ends this Sunday (30 November) when the officers will be returning to their original teams.
28 November 2008