Kingston officially the safest borough in London but police still face serious challenges says borough commander

But borough commander Glenn Tunstall said his officers still faced serious challenges, including the battle against violent crime and sexual offences.

The most recent Metropolitan Police figures revealed there were 485 fewer crimes in Kingston last year than in 2014-15.

With 9,285 ‘notifiable offences’ Kingston pipped neighbouring Richmond to the post for the title of safest borough.

Merton recorded 11,714 crimes, Sutton 9,950 and Wandsworth 21,286.

Despite the borough’s safety there are still offences that keep Ch Supt Tunstall ‘awake at night’.

He said: “Some people can’t see behind the uniform and think we are robots. Underneath that uniform we are human beings. We have families that we go home to. Sexual offences and children cases - they are the crimes that really affect me.”

This is one of the reasons the borough’s force has become so prolific on social media, he said.

He said: “It is definitely to show people what policing is all about. It’s not always crime.”

Reports of sexual offences in the borough fell from 78 to 59 year-on-year, a drop that Ch Supt Tunstall credits in part to the Kingston town centre team.

He said: “With our night-time economy that is where we unfortunately see quite a few of these types of crime. There is going to be a real focus this year on protecting the vulnerable.”

The Kingston town centre police team 

Despite the drop in crime overall, grievous bodily harm, assault with an offensive weapon, harassment and other violent offences all slightly increased in Kingston.

These were most prominent in the town centre, which houses two of the biggest nightclubs in south-west London.

Kingston Council and London mayor Boris Johnson invested £1.2m in hiring 12 extra police officers for the zone last year.

Ch Supt Tunstall said: “It definitely helped. With the violence figures, like London generally, we have seen an increase.

“But it has been the smallest increase in London. We have had some challenges around violent crimes. We are now reporting [violent] crime better than we have ever reported it.

“Before [last year] we identified that some of the [low level violence] cases we were missing because they were falling under anti-social behaviour.”

Ch Supt Tunstall said the borough’s burglary reductions were one of the things ‘he is most proud of’ along with detection rates.

Reported burglaries have gone down from 1,003 to 815 in the last year.

He said: “It is one thing I am really proud of because that crime has such an impact and it is the thing that residents talk to me most about.

“We have really stepped up to that challenge.”

Superintendent Anthony Enoch added: “Kingston reported the highest detection rates across the Met at 26.1 per cent, meaning that over one-in-four of all reported crimes are solved.

“This increases significantly for violent offences with a 42.1 per cent detection rate for wounding and GBH.

“Kingston is a very safe place to live and work.”

Cuts are one thing Ch Supt Tunstall said he was not worried about, and he moved to quash rumours - swirling for at least a year - that there are plans to merge the Kingston and Richmond forces, which was suggested by London Assembly member Tony Arbour last week.

He said: “The Met has to save £400m by 2020. There are lots of plans in place. We just have to wait and see how they come to [effect Kingston].

“I have heard no plans of merging. We are working around staff engagement to ensure we have the confidence of the public we are here to protect.”

MP James Berry said: "I'm pleased that our successful campaign for extra police officers in the town centre has paid off.

"These results are down to the hard work and dedication of our excellent local police officers who put themselves at risk every day to keep us safe."

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