Ilford Town Centre is a busy and vibrant area that will benefit from a dedicated policing presence. The officers will patrol areas of high demand at the busiest times to tackle the issues that matter the most to Redbridge communities. Their duty times will support them having the greatest possible impact on crime and public safety and will form part of the Met’s mission to drive down violent crime.
Redbridge’s Town Centre Team will consist of 25 officers; 1 Inspector, 3 Sergeants and 21 Police Constables, which provides an opportunity to deal with many of the issues that matter to the local community, but specifically violence and harassment committed against women and girls.
Stephen Clayman, BCU Commander for Redbridge, Havering and Barking and Dagenham said: “This is great news for Ilford. We’ve got 25 officers whose job will be to make town centre safer, reassure our local community, and look after our residents, visitors and business owners.
“These officers will be supporting our Safer Neighbourhoods Team in supressing violent crime, and using data gathered from our SaferStreets reporting mechanism to address areas where people feel that police presence is needed. I know that the community want to see more police officers on the beat, so please say hello when you see them.
“The new team has a broad range of experience and they will get to know what some of the local issues are and take action where they can and I hope that their presence in the area will help local residents, visitors and business owners feel safe and reassured.”
In total 500 officers will make up the Town Centre Teams across London, while a further 150 officers will join London’s dedicated ward officers, who are already working within communities to reduce crime and problem-solve.
This is one of the ways the Met is investing the recent increase in police numbers to address the things that matter most to Londoners.
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The first 12 Town Centre Teams were launched on Monday, 6 December, with the remaining seven following on 14 February.
The town centre teams in the first tranche are:
The West End, Westminster;
Barking, in Barking and Dagenham;
Croydon, Croydon borough;
Lewisham, Lewisham borough;
Brixton, Lambeth;
Uxbridge, Hillingdon;
Camden Town, Camden;
Wood Green, Haringey;
Kingston, Kingston-Upon-Thames;
Shoreditch, Hackney;
Wembley, Brent;
Stratford, Newham.
During the second phase, Town Centre Teams will be introduced in the following locations:
Ilford, Redbridge;
Bromley, borough of Bromley;
Woolwich, Greenwich borough;
Hounslow, Hounslow borough;
Edmonton, Enfield;
Harlesden, Brent;
Euston, Camden borough.
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StreetSafe is a pilot service for anyone to anonymously tell us about public places where you have felt or feel unsafe, because of environmental issues, e.g. street lighting, abandoned buildings or vandalism and/or because of some behaviours, e.g. being followed or verbally abused.
Please note: ‘StreetSafe’ is not for reporting crime or incidents.
If something has happened to you or someone you know (including in public spaces online) you can call us on 101 or report online.
If you’re unsure whether something is a crime or not, read our advice.
