Rising crime in East Dulwich?

[Jellybeanz]

Have people noticed there is more crime in ED particularly over last year or so. Seems to be getting worse and when our MP (Helen Hayes) wrote to the police about a crime I reported, they admitted that there has been a rise in "anti social behaviour and crime".

I have anecdotally heard of more car crime, bike thefts, more muggings / theft mobile phones than ever before. On our road there has been a car crime roughly every month - from theft of number plates to theft of catalytic converts and a stolen range rover (it had a tracker and was found in Beckenham, which surprised me given theft of luxury cars is usually real organised crime and the cars are shipped overseas very quickly as far as I can gather). Our neighbour had their door kicked in (early evening) and jewellery stolen.

This has always been a really quiet road in central East Dulwich so the rise in crime is a bit concerning.

I would suggest people write to the police if they are a victim of crime, as they are working with Southwark council to get more CCTV around the area (we have hardly any compared to neighbouring areas) which I feel would act as a deterrent and that is snr police's view also.

[Rockets]

I think it is rising across the whole Dulwich area - a lot of people are getting phones stolen and a few shops on Lordship Lane have been the victims of aggravated burglaries during business hours recently. Unfortunately areas like Dulwich will always be rich, and profitable, hunting grounds for thieves.

[KalamityKel]

Could also be a case of reported crimes being on the increase... 🤷‍♀️

 

[Dulwichdaddy]

Same on my road countless vehicles with the cats stolen, break ins defo on the rise .

[alice]

Times like this it’s best to check the metropolitan police crime map. You may be suprised. 

[James Barber]

Southwark Council no longer remove graffiti from private properties. Street cleaning is less thorough and frequent. All factors that are known to increase anti social behaviour which usually leads to more crime. 

If you can keep your street cleaner and if you suffer graffiti please do remove it. 

Also worth trying to report issues via FixMyStreet to Southwark Council which recently the council linked into. If you find issues don't get resolved complain via https://www.southwark.gov.uk/council-and-democracy/complaints-comments-and-compliments/making-a-complaint

[Spartacus]

One issue Jellybeanz is that installing cctv is one thing 

Having the resources to monitor it and even more police resources to respond to crime is another.

Most crininals know how to avoid cctv and not to show their face on it. 

It's possibly rare that the resources exist to catch someone seen doing what is seen as "Petty" crime when the resources are targeted towards more serious crimes.

Best to campaign for a bigger local police team who may actually then have the resources to nip things in the bud. 

[mrwb]

Like with the post service. All the local police infrastructure closed down in the last 20 years. (Now there are too many schools as well.)

It's what happens when only fair weather is planned for. We'll never get a reliable post service without a local delivery office and crime won't be controlled properly without a local base for the police.

As the cost of living issues increase expect more crime...

Edited June 11, 2023 by mrwb

[malumbu]

You've raised some excellent wider issues mrwb, worthy of a number of separate threads on the Lounge, happy to have a good debate on these there.

[Rockets]

Sad to see that Sainsbury’s staff at The Plough have had to start wearing audio and video recording devices on their uniforms.

[exdulwicher]

35 minutes ago, Rockets said:

Sad to see that Sainsbury’s staff at The Plough have had to start wearing audio and video recording devices on their uniforms.

The store layout there is terrible, it's almost an open invite for shoplifting with the tills as far from the door as that.

That's another crime that's regarded as "petty" - police won't take an interest in it unless it's really high value or incredibly persistent and in many cases store staff are told not to even bother challenging it due to the risk of violence against them. 

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/jun/06/im-burnt-out-from-dealing-with-shoplifters-in-our-london-store

[creditwheredue]

Two cars stolen on my road this week and someone kicked over a Lime bike. 

[Spartacus]

Radical idea 

Rather than just arm chair moaning about perceived or real crime in the area, approach your local safer neighbourhood team and ask to sit at the next panel meeting where you can hear crime stats straight from the horses mouth* and raise your concerns 

 

* please note, police horses won't be in attendance at the meeting 🙄 

[alice]

Great idea but no one turns up to these meetings. (I went to a couple and it was a bit like a private club)  nor do they check their local crime stats. 

[Spartacus]

Interesting 

You can ask in advance for crime stats to be available and the more other residents who go, the less of a private club it becomes 

[TES]

You can find up-to-date crime stats here https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/metropolitan.police.service/viz/MonthlyCrimeDataNewCats/Coversheet it's a bit clunky to use but it's all there. If you select a few of the neighbourhoods around East Dulwich and look at offences like robbery or theft it's not obvious to me that there is a notable trend different from longer term averages - some crimes a bit above, some a bit below (this goes back to 2018). 

 

We had a spate of robberies earlier this year in the streets around us (near Goose Green) and a few residents wrote to our councillors (easy to find contact details here: https://www.southwark.gov.uk/council-and-democracy/councillors-and-mps/your-councillors), our local MP (easy to find contact details here: https://members.parliament.uk/FindYourMP) and our local police liaison (easy to find contact details here: https://www.met.police.uk/area/your-area/met/southwark/). It does make a difference and it only needs to take five minutes to draft an email and find the right contact details.

[alice]

The site Police.uk is much easier to use. Click your post code then crime map. 
ps Spartacus -I was unclear in my post. The ‘they’  I used was referring to posters talking about perceived crime rates not the panel. (But from what I’ve seen they just talk about whatever is a priority for those who turn up parking and vehicle crime)

[Pugwash]

I attend the Dulwich Hill SNT and attendance has increased over the past couple of meetings. Meetings are held  at 6.30 pm and  held at Christ Church Barry Road. Next one scheduled for 6th September.

[Earl Aelfheah]

I suspect that with the cost of living crisis, we may start to see crime rates trending up across the UK. Crime stats are a bit of a lagging indicator however, so I guess time will tell.

[teddyboy23]

2 shops robbed  in last 2 weeks by a piece of shit welding a knife . The shops being bottle cave next to jazz's barbers also toy shop down  your goose green roundabout ,know one was hurt 

[Penguin68]

Crimes run in fashions - so you can see an upswing in one type of crime locally (which is scary) without being aware than another type of crime is coming down. Often if a criminal is successful in one endeavour, he or she continues and their success encourages others to enter, indeed maybe change crime targets.

I'm afraid I see the incapacity of the police to do much as a greater factor in crime increases in a locale than issues of cost-of-living crises. Certainly when the police do 'blitz' particular activities that type of crime does fall.

Edited June 13, 2023 by Penguin68
Typo

[Angelina]

It's far more serious than is being noted.

One shop has regular shoplifters, who are totally brazen and no attempt to hide it. They have threatened the manager and that they will stab him when he is out, if he challenges them. They are rightly scared.

Discuss it all you like at the community meetings, but there is a nasty, violent under current that is not being policed and it's just giving the kids and criminals a green light. 

There is a lot that is not being reported. 

 

 

[Earl Aelfheah]

23 hours ago, teddyboy23 said:

2 shops robbed  in last 2 weeks by a piece of shit welding a knife . The shops being bottle cave next to jazz's barbers also toy shop down  your goose green roundabout ,know one was hurt 

Wow, that's terrible. 

[WomblingFree]

On 11/06/2023 at 08:05, James Barber said:

Southwark Council no longer remove graffiti from private properties. Street cleaning is less thorough and frequent. All factors that are known to increase anti social behaviour which usually leads to more crime. 

I agree up to a point, but also hasn’t the problem moved beyond this? Just walking to the station I routinely see speeding/extreme speeding, people ignoring red lights, cycling on pavements, people jumping on the backs of buses without paying etc etc. Essentially I see more criminals than police.

If graffiti and litter can lead to more crime then I’m pretty sure open criminality can too. A burglar might reasonably take a look around at all this and feel invulnerable.

It might be that the pandemic has messed with my mind a bit, but were things like this in 2019?

[Spartacus]

2 hours ago, WomblingFree said:

I agree up to a point, but also hasn’t the problem moved beyond this? Just walking to the station I routinely see speeding/extreme speeding, people ignoring red lights, cycling on pavements, people jumping on the backs of buses without paying etc etc. Essentially I see more criminals than police.

If graffiti and litter can lead to more crime then I’m pretty sure open criminality can too. A burglar might reasonably take a look around at all this and feel invulnerable.

It might be that the pandemic has messed with my mind a bit, but were things like this in 2019?

Are you (Generic) complicit of these crimes by just accepting they are happening or are you proactively reporting them?

The police use crime report stats to assign resources to an area and unless we are all reporting them, no matter how small or trivial they feel, the police won't have visibility of them. 

By turning a blind eye and muttering "there's not enough police around", you are helping the criminals by not showing a demand for more officers. 

Be proactive, report crimes, attend SNT meetings to focus the ward priorities, raise grafitti issues with the council but for gawds sake don't just come on here and moan... if you've got the time to whinge on here, report it online to the police via https://www.met.police.uk/ro/report/ocr/af/how-to-report-a-crime/