Forum Topic

Where are Acton's police?

I just spent a really unpleasant morning at the market being harrassed by a loopy Romanian (I know he was both because who else would harrass me and he kept flashing his Romanian ID card) I suppose I should be grateful that was all he flashed - but he did spit at two of the women with me and was threatening enough to be on the cusp between iritating and frightening.No police presence,Four handbags/purses stolen from the market this week: no sign of the policeDrunks, in numbers, drinking beer from cans on the steps of St Mary's in spite of it being a drinking exclusion zone. No police to stop them.None of these things warrented a 999 call but just one community policeman or woman visible would have made all the difference. Were they all on a half-term holiday? Surely not.

Sara Nathan ● 5585d22 Comments

Community police are too busy wandering around Acton Vale telling me over and over that letting my dog have a pee on the kerb isn't nice...well it's nicer than the middle of the pavement or having my dog squashed by a racing car!

Alison Cheyney ● 5585d

Actually I understand they were running a very worthy event in Springfield Gardens for local youth in aid of Help for Heroes...and I truly hope it went well. But I don't think having no-one near the market when there are streetdrinkers out in force is necessarily a good idea.

Sara Nathan ● 5584d

In response;There were only 4 from the local team working on the 4th and we were all required to run the community event which took the whole shift setting up, running and taking down at the end of the day. This event was aimed at local school children and supported Help for heroes and 100’s of people from the local community attended. We could not run the event and Police the ward at the same time unfortunately although response team would still have been out and about and could have attended if these problems were reported via the non emergency number 03001231212. Re the Vale there has been a large amount of robbery and snatch offences in the area recently and Police presence has been increased to limit and catch those responsible.

PS 101XB Mark Pullen ● 5583d

Somehow the drinkers/crazies and thieves seemed to be well aware they could behave with impunity - maybe  a little cover neeeded.Still hope the event went really well.

Sara Nathan ● 5583d

Mark, is the new 101 non-emergency number working now?

Susan Kelly ● 5583d

Until such time as the reason why these unsocials gather in such numbers on the Mount is removed, the problem will not go away.

Dee Cook ● 5583d

The new shortened non emergency number is due to go live soon.......August is the date I believe

PS 101XB Mark Pullen ● 5583d

The 999 emergency number is not used worldwide, but the number used by other countries (something like 101 or 121) was being kept clear and available for emergency use by visitors to the UK. I assume that the non-urgent number will have an answer phone message redirecting English speaking visitors to 999.

Chris Bell ● 5583d

The event in Springfield Gdns on Saturday afternoon was great fun and my son loved getting in and 'driving' the fire engine, police cars etc. Was hoping there would be dogs and horses but didn't see any? But all the members of the teams there were really friendly and it felt like a really nice community event. The hardest thing was trying to explain to my very disappointed toddler why the "nee nahs" weren't also there yesterday when we went to the park...

Laura Wood ● 5582d

It's difficult in the heat of the moment to draw a dividing line between calling the Police so they 'get this man out of my face he's affecting my enjoyment of life' and 'I feel threatened and need help.'What do other people think? If you were manning a market stall and someone spat at you, or one of your co-workers, would you dial 999? I think I would - especially if he was hanging around and had spat at and annoyed people for a prolonged period, but perhaps that's hysterical of me.

Clare Gittins ● 5582d

I thought it would be an over-reaction to actually call 999 and I knew we were packing up at 1300 anyhow so thought we could sit it out - in retrospect an OK decision but he could have got much more unpleasant/aggressive and then i would have thought it a mistake.But it wasn't an emergency just a bit nerve-wracking.

Sara Nathan ● 5582d

It was a shame about the horses - two were booked but then redirected from up high to trooping the colour in Central London. The dog did arrive at 1.30 and stayed for an hour providing a demonstration and opportunity for children to pat and stroke. The dog had to leave as it was still operational and required at an incident.

PS 101XB Mark Pullen ● 5582d

The European number is 112 (I think) and works here in the same way as 999.

Susan Kelly ● 5582d

As one of the people who was spat at on Saturday (does that make me a 'spittee'?), I think the situation would have got out of hand if we hadn't left when we did (which is when we had planned on leaving anyway) - not because of the Romanian (wearing a black cowboy hat - avoid at all costs!) but from the rather OTT reaction of one of the other stallholders who seemed prepared to defend us quite physically. (We appreciated the thought but...). The problem for us was having no one to turn to (i.e. community police) without further escalating things - ringing 999 seemed a bit heavy handed.I do believe that it was the near absence of the Oaktree (CofE) free coffee/tea stall that was a major part of the problem. (I think they were there - minimally - for a short time, but then disappeared.) The less fortunate of Acton have come to depend on the drinks and fellowship they find there. The problem is that, when Oaktree aren't there, the unfortunates are left at a loose end - I'm sure 'our' Romanian was one of these.Another point I'd like to make, one that Sara touched on briefly, is that during the week there had been *four* bag-snatchings in the market but no sign of the police, according to market manager Vanessa T. So Saturday's problem wasn't an isolated incident.

Nancy Duin ● 5580d

Results on the crime reporting system show no reported bag snatches on the Mount/King street area for the week period. The non emergency Police number is 03001231212.

PS 101XB Mark Pullen ● 5580d

Someone should just kick him in the bollards

David Wright ● 5580d

I would have called the police if someone spat at me.

Thea Buchan ● 5580d

What good would that have done? He was obviously mentally ill.

Nancy Duin ● 5580d

And thee were four of us...not therefore in danger but just uneasy and unable to do what we were supposed to be doing.No fun!

Sara Nathan ● 5580d

I found them!!! All the police were at the 207 bus stop at The Vale this afternoon.  Seriously, though, there were 10 or more officers - what was going on?

Maria Pettit ● 5580d

The Police do have offices above the Post Office on The Mount and there is usually 'someone'(mostly CPO's ) up there on a normal Saturday......that is when they don't have an event going on.Getting them to answer the buzzer though is another matter.Speaking to one some weeks back, he stated that 30% of crime in Acton, occurs in Morrisons !!

Ellie Rose ● 5580d

I can easily believe it...and they only have CCTV in the alcohol aisle.When I was robbed, the immediate response to my anguished cry of "my purse has been stolen" was the frosty "well, what do you expect me to do about it?" from the shift leader.Not impressive.

Sara Nathan ● 5580d