Speaking to the News Shopper, Superintendent Luke Baldock said they have increased visible patrols in areas identified as hotspots for antisocial behaviour.
He said making police more visible in these key areas has resulted in a 35 per cent reduction in robbery and a 15 per cent decrease in knife crime in recent months.
In Bromley town centre these areas are East Street and The Glades-High Street area.
Superintendent Baldock explained: “There’s been some fantastic work by Andy Buckley [Town Centre Inspector] on visibility in what we call our hotspots.
“There are two defined hotspots as part of an ongoing study in the town centre, East Street and the High Street area.
“Obviously robbery does tend to concentrate in our town centre and I’m convinced that the visibility in that space has made an impact.”
We joined a town centre patrol at lunchtime on Thursday (August 29).
The patrol saw no incidents but Inspector Buckley explained that if officers return from a patrol with nothing to report he sees it as a success for preventative policing.
As well as deterring would-be offenders, Inspector Buckley said their aim is to create a feeling of safety for residents.
Town centre officers are equipped with radios to communicate with shop staff and security guards and officers said they’re frequently called to shoplifting incidents or as a preventative measure when a known shoplifter is in the store.
However, Inspector Buckley said “worryingly” he believes many shop workers in Bromley don’t report shoplifting incidents as they see it as part of the job.
Superintendent Baldock said: “Shoplifting is an Achilles’ heel because if you stop shoplifting you can stop the violence that stems from shoplifting.
“Retail crime is a real scourge. Shoplifters don’t just steal, they bring intimidation and violence. 64 per cent of retail workers in the UK are women, so women are disproportionately experiencing that.”
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Superintendent Baldock said one tool for tackling repeat offenders is Criminal Behaviour Orders (CBOs) – he said they have recently secured four of these including orders banning offenders from Bromley.
When asked if this would just push crime to surrounding areas, Superintendent Baldock said: “If someone is offending in Bromley it’s usually because they know the area and how it works. If you can push them into another borough they might not know the area or might not be connected to that area by public transport.”
Officers said that they generally receive positive reactions from local when they’re on patrol.
Superintendent Baldock added: “I universally find that the one thing we get asked is can we see more police.
“People seem to be very receptive in Bromley and are happy to see us. We don’t get that tension or the sense that our patrols are an imposition on the public or something that the community in any way resents.”
