A new team of police officers handed the toughest beat in the borough has announced the results of its first few months on the mean streets of Kingston town centre.

Surrey Comet:

Busy: A sub-section of Grove ward. (Pic: Met Police/Google Maps)

With 200 crimes committed in May and 198 in June, this part of Grove ward bordered by the railway station and bus station to the north and east, and Kingston Crown Court to the south, is as busy as sections of central London.

Kingston Council and Mayor of London Boris Johnson invested £1.2m in hiring extra police officers for the particular area earlier this year.

The 15-strong team is led by sergeants Dave Williams and Will Holland and has notched 109 arrests since getting to work in April.

Alleged offences include carrying a knife, serious assaults, handling stolen goods and fraud.

Sgt Williams said: “It is a very busy team, the crime figures show it.

“We are working a lot of overtime. I am lucky to have a group of people that are really keen and are really up for it.

“As soon as they book in at the beginning of the shift, they are running around all day, and more – they are lapping it up. I think we are reaping the benefits.

“We have definitely seen business crime coming down since we started and cycle theft continues to fall.

“We work quite closely with the town centre link radio system.

“We actually end up reacting a lot of the time to calls that come directly to us.

“And we are able to get to stuff town centre-related quicker because it cuts out the call centre part.”

As well as making arrests, town centre team members find themselves on plain-clothed patrols, running in-depth investigations and working with the probation service in the cases of prolific offenders.

The investment in extra policing was a Conservative manifesto pledge ahead of last May’s local elections – but the Liberal Democrats in Kingston have argued the council should not have to fork out the money for it.

Deputy Kingston Council leader Gaj Wallooppillai said: “We will not tolerate people feeling unsafe in their local area; this is the first step in changing that perception.”

  • 44 - Arrests for theft offences including shoplifting, employee theft, theft by finding
  • 17 - Miscellaneous including wanted on warrant and begging
  • 13 - For assaults including GBH, ABH and common assault
  • 8 - For public order offences
  • 8 - Possession of class A and class B drugs
  • 5 - Arrests for fraud
  • 5 - For drink driving
  • 3 - Drugs including possession with intent to supply class A and class B drugs
  • 2 - Arrests for criminal damage
  • 2 - For handling stolen goods
  • 1 - One arrest for possession of a knife
  • 1 - One arrest for going equipped to steal
  • 1 - One arrest for domestic actual bodily harm

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