Incidents more than triple in six month period

Police at scene of stabbing of Brentford teenager this week

Figures to be presented in a report to local Councillors next week have shown the extent of the increase in knife crime in the Chiswick area.

The Local Policing Report is on the agenda for the next Chiswick Area Forum meeting on 2 April and local officers will be briefing ward representatives on how they are tackling crime in the area.

The report shows an alarming increase in the amount of knife crime in the W4 area over the latest six months for which figures have been compiled. There were 43 incidents in the period compared with 13 for the previous six months or more than tripling. The worst affected ward was Chiswick Homefields which went from just four cases to 23. The ward seems to also have experienced an increase in drug crime with offences of this kind more than doubling during the period.

It is believed that a significant proportion of these offences relate to robberies by teenagers on other teenagers. Very few of the offences have resulted in injuries and at the same time as knife crime has risen in W4 offences of violence resulting in injury have fallen by around 20%

The Met says that knife crime is their priority and the report states Chiswick has received extra resources from the violent crime taskforce. This has allowed extra stop and search to be carried out leading to a number of arrests for robbery and possession of knives.

Figures from Local Policing Report

The police say neighbourhood officers have been carrying out regular high visibility patrols across all three wards and sweeps of hot spot areas recovering weapons. Chiswick officers have been conducting regular weapon sweeps in hot spot areas. This has resulted in knives being recovered including a large knife abandoned in the grounds of St Michael & All Angels church last week (25 March). This was the second such finding in a week, another knife was found in Kingswood Terrace.

Operation Lindhouse has been set up by the West Area basic command unit to tackle robberies on school children and violent crime in Chiswick. This has included officers from violent crime taskforce, Operation Wolverine and Chiswick safer neighbourhoods teams. Officers have been conducting high visibility patrols on both sides of Chiswick high Road, Chiswick Common and Turnham Green Terrace carrying out weapon sweeps throughout the area.

The figures in the report show that comparing the most recent three months to the previous three, the level of knife crime seems to have started to fall with 20 offences against 26 for the earlier period.

The report states, “The Metropolitan police do take residents’ concerns very seriously and are determined to deal with criminals who enter the area robustly and effectively. There has been a number of positive arrests for robbery and those in possession of dangerous weapons. This has enabled the Police and courts to deliver harsh penalties and sentences to those intent on committing crime and terrorising the community. There is work underway to ban these individuals from entering the Chiswick area. There has been a large amount of work carried out by our schools officers through presentations on knife crime, after school patrols in Chiswick, consultation with head teachers and safeguarding leads to discuss knife crime with a view to target harden. The local neighbourhood team have been working with partners from the council and local businesses to target harden hot spot areas. There is now a community safety camera installed in Chiswick Common and maintenance carried out by the Parks team to keep tree tops to a minimum and removing benches discouraging large groups to congregate. Chiswick Police are confident to say that robbery crime in Chiswick Common/Turnham Green has reduced significantly and officers have been visible providing reassurance to the public and school children in the area.”

Local MP Ruth Cadbury has written to the Home Secretary Sajid Javid demanding that the Government take urgent action to address what she describes as a violent crime epidemic. This comes after a serious of violent incidents across the constituency, including the tragic death of Abdirashid Mohamoud, a 17-year-old, who was stabbed in Isleworth on Friday 22 March.

Speaking about the letter, Ms Cadbury said, ‘The Home Secretary needs to take urgent action to address this violent crime epidemic, and that includes fully funding our police so that they have the resources to tackle crime, and engage in community policing. Likewise the Government need to reinvest in youth clubs, schools, colleges and other vital services for young people, all of which have faced funding cuts since 2010. These services play a crucial role in preventing young people from falling into a life of crime.

“I will keep working in Parliament to push the Government to take a much bolder approach to knife crime. This not only means more funding for our police officers, but also more funding for youth and social services, who’ve been decimated by cuts.”

She says she is in the process of organising a series of public meetings, and will be in touch shortly with residents when the details are finalised.

A meeting organised by Chiswick Councillors took place last Thursday (28 March) and there is a full report here. Supt Gary Taylor told the meeting that there would be 90 new police staff over the next few months into the triborough area and that ten members of Operation Wolverine were deployed in W4 in the last seven weeks and five of them were amongst the most productive police officers in London in terms of making arrests. Sgt Anil Sharma who is based in Chiswick, said that there had been no incidents of mugging in the Chiswick Common area for some time and he was confident that it was increased police activity between January and March that had helped.

It was also reported that a major local drugs dealer had been arrested recently, and through Operation Lindhouse, which also involved plain clothes police officers, they had identified a small group of children who were responsible for most of the attacks in the area. Arrest has been made and some of the stolen mobile phones had been returned. Ten suspects had been arrested since operations began, and five convicted.

March 31, 2019