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| Cllr Greg Smith with Borough Commander Lucy D'Orsi |
Do you know these people? They are all featured in a gallery of shame-style initiative between the local Police and our Council and stand accused of a wide variety of petty crimes. Petty maybe but it doesn't feel like that when you're the victim.
This is really excellent use of new media by both our Council, led by Greg Smith, and local Borough Commander Lucy D'Orsi. The rogues gallery, with three foot high mug shots mounted on a mobile ad van, started touring west London today as part of the joint initiative, which has been paid for by the local authority.
“Criminals can run, but they cannot hide,” said Cllr Greg Smith, H&F Cabinet Member for Residents’ Services. “We need residents to take a long hard look at these faces and help us put these villains behind bars. Our message is clear, if you know these people we want you to turn them in.”
“Crime is falling in Hammersmith & Fulham but, as a council, we want to do everything we can to make our borough even safer and hopefully this rogues gallery will generate some leads for the police to follow."
Good luck to them - and study the images on this website. If you know anybody please call 101 and let the Police know.
2330 UPDATE - Our MP Andy Slaughter has responded to this article by warning against using eye catching initiatives to cover the fact that police resources have been cut. He says this:
“Whilst the council have at least responded in some way to the worrying increase in burglaries and vehicle crime, our police are having to cope with cuts to their staff. Putting police on the streets is the most effective way of tackling the problem of rising crime, and I urge the council to approach the issue of public safety with caution rather than complacency.”
He is referring to the admission made by Boris Johnson on Tuesday that Police numbers in London have fallen by 1,700 during his Mayoralty. Expect that to be seized on again and again by Labour and others between now and May...
I guess you have to do something cheap and cheerful when slashing police numbers...
ReplyDeleteLike most residents of our neighbourhood I have suffered from crime, so I welcome this and would like to see more. Don't we want a safe and crime free place to live? It's not as though the police can ever hope to catch all criminals in the act, regardless of numbers. So cheap an cheerful maybe, but better than just shrugging and accepting crime as the price of living in the city.
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