The decline of Neighbourhood Police officers, combined with the

• national reduction of police officers
• reduced retention rates
• larger ratio of sick leave
• low starting salaries
• increased public criticism

means less quality for Neighbourhood Policing and that affects volunteers.

This comprehensive Daily Mail article “Death of the Bobby on the Beat” lists the main points nationwide.

With all those officers leaving voluntarily as well, we will see less Met Police approved volunteers as volunteers need supervising officers. It’s a downward spiral.

Politicians have used policing as a pawn in elections or even ignored it as this example shows. @th_crime_watch needs a well-functioning, well-paid force to work with. Also with the loss of @PoliceOWL we will see a loss of direct community and @metpoliceuk interaction.

I’ve spoken with Gary Fenton of OWL who does not recommend Ourwatch as OWL alternative, neither do we. OWL has had all funding removed by MOPAC.

People will just use @WhatsApp to communicate and that can go wild without proper guidance. We’ve seen very large local groups with many who wanted to engage in vigilante activity to solve ASB problems. We have left all those groups.

Leaving Community Policing to @londoncouncils with more enforcement officers leaves a large grey area of responsibility because those officers don’t have the same powers. I urge media and politicians to carefully manage their criticism of officers to constructive remarks. In fact Police should be removed from political control.

It is quite obvious that politicians who themselves can find themselves under Police scrutiny for their own behaviour are more likely to criticise back.

As politicians change very frequently police forces become the punch ball of sparring politicians. They rather see police criticised than themselves. We cannot use Ourwatch @N_Watch because this system doesn’t scrutinise registrants. Coordinators don’t even need Police approval.

@MPFed @PFEW_HQ it’s the same for forces all over @GOVUK

We read more frequently from all types of Police Federation how there is a problem in recruiting and retaining officers.

The Police Federation say that “Poor Pay and Treatment push officers towards resignation” More than 14,500 UK police officers were signed off work over the past year due to stress, depression, anxiety or PTSD. 

The starting salaries of train drivers in London has been lifted to 70K by Union demand but Police officers, who need tremendous skills are not so privileged.

This has a catastrophic effect on Police volunteering. Every volunteering session needs qualified Police Officers to supervise. If there are no officers to do so, volunteers cannot be deployed.

As these graphics show, policing numbers were higher in 2013.

See source of picture graphics.

I started to work with Neighbourhood Watch in 2011/12 and had a dedicated Inspector to work with. Every Watch group was personally scrutinised by SNT Officers and contracted to work with police.

Now, we do not even have police officers monitoring self-appointed Watch groups on Ourwatch. Coordinators no longer need any police approval at all but can just mark off a territory, to be monitored by an Admin who does not need Police approval.

We have started Tower Hamlets Crime Watch as an independent organisation who knows all the pitfalls of voluntary engagement with a problematic environment. Apply to join us, we refuse some applications.

Report to Tower Hamlets Police

I have submitted a report about the Neighbourhood Watch Development in Tower Hamlets to Tower Hamlets Police, of which I publish here the redacted version.