CommunitySafe.gov.uk

Good News Story: Youth Ward Panel, partner with Police to tackle bullying, robbery and an underlying fear of crime. Concerns of students who attend a local youth ward panel in Streatham's Bishop Thomas Grant School have led to a large problem solving operation being put into place by local police. Streatham Wells Safer Neighborhoods Team have worked in partnership with BTG school, Arriva bus company, and the local councilor and ward panel during the project. All are united in finding solutions for the problems surrounding these young people. Students had been feeling at risk of robbery and vulnerable to bullies whilst traveling home from school on their bus routes. Research by Police analysts revealed that numerous robberies had happened over the past 6 months. Ongoing efforts to deal with this has already provided a sense of progress and reassurance to both students, and others agencies involved in this initiative, and these efforts continue! The commitment of the police will involve regular scheduled deployments to cover the affected bus routes during the problem times, and increasing partnership with other agencies involved. Consequently a clear message will be sent to those who were contemplating intimidation and crime. Police have initiated a problem solving process, which reveals in greater detail the multiple ideas and approaches the police and partners are using to deal with this issue. Sergeant Steve Jones commented “Its really important that the youth of the area realise that by their involvement in the youth ward panel, changes have been made to policing in Lambeth, we are now able to target the issues that they face specifically and proactively. Their positive contributions and ideas resulted in this taking place!”.