I often get contacted about crime and anti-social behaviour locally and ahead of the public police event on Friday 10th January at Christ Church (6-8pm) with Superintendent Mitch Carr and the local police teams covering Purley & Woodcote, Purley Oaks & Riddlesdown, Kenley and Waddon (you can rsvp here), I wanted to provide an update.
Reporting crime
Any crime, even if you deem it to be trivial or not worth reporting should be reported. This allows the police to build a bigger picture of the situation locally. Far too often, we get reports of issues but when we raise with the local police, they tell us that there are no reports/fewer than suggested concerning that specific location or type of crime.
Obviously in an emergency, it’s 999. For a non-emergency, 101.
You can also report a crime online here.
Crime statistics
Crime stats for Purley & Woodcote can be found here. I am reassured that some types of crime are generally coming down, but I do fully recognise that there are significant concerns around certain types of crime such as mobile phone muggings and car thefts.
I am also very mindful that most of the crime reported locally is in/around the district centre of Purley, which of course doesn’t help the area’s reputation, and ward councillors are committed to working with the local police, residents and businesses to combat this.
Our local safer neighbourhood team (SNT)
Our local SNT team is active and does an excellent job locally, but they are a small team, and they do the best they can with the resources they have. They often undertake patrols in plain clothes and are always receptive when ward councillors flag locations that they should look at – be it for speeding, muggings or other anti-social behaviour.
You can email them at [email protected] to flag a specific concern but I would encourage crime to be reported via the channels listed above.
Purley & Woodcote SNT ward panel
Ward panel meetings are open to any resident of Purley & Woodcote and take place on average once a quarter. They are resident-led and a great opportunity to raise specific issues of concern and find out more about local police activity. At the end of each meeting, priorities for the next quarter are agreed.
Please email [email protected] and the Chair, Ranjiv Nagi at Ranjiv Nagi ([email protected]) to register interest. They take place at different locations locally, but the next one is on Wednesday 5th February at Christ Church, Purley. The next meeting will also double up as an AGM this time with a 6.30pm start for the AGM and a 7.15pm start for the ward panel meeting.
Coffee with a Copper
inPurley (Purley BID) organise coffee with a copper sessions open to any resident at local cafés. Whilst these can be very useful, generally only one or two residents attend, and it would be good to see a few more people turn up to raise concerns/discuss a way forward with local police.
The next ones are: Wednesday 22nd January, 2-3pm at the Costa in Tesco and Wednesday 26th February 6-7pm at the Pear Tree pub.
Either myself or my ward colleague Cllr Simon Brew endeavour to join these although it is not always possible for me due to my work commitments. Please contact Catherine Garrad at [email protected] to register or if you want more info.
If any residents wish to raise any enquiries with me related to crime and policing, it would be helpful to email my ward colleagues and I – [email protected], [email protected] and [email protected].
Cllr Samir Dwesar
