See link with a more detailed explanation from Metropolitan Police about station closures.

9. December 2025

Met prioritises neighbourhoods in new community crime-fighting strategy

A new document was published by Met Police to pursue the new strategy on increased community policing. This document is aimed at the whole of Greater London. but does not address the issue of Tower Hamlets Council having employed in excess of 70 THEO officers, who have no access to police systems and no power of arrest. See related article

Whilst on 20. November 2025 the Cheshire Constabulary announced they plan to axe 60 of their PCSO officers to save money, the opposite is happening in Greater London. We get more support staff, more less qualified THEO patrols and in all 500 more officers and staff added to Neighbourhood teams. These regional problem-solving approaches are very important because it shows that different regions work in different ways, whilst Neighbourhood Alert, which runs Met Engage and Neighbourhood Watch employs the same model throughout the whole of the UK.

Still we have the problem that people arrive at Bethnal Green Police station not being able to report a crime because it takes at least 2 hours waiting to see an officer to do so and there is no advice on how to report online in the station. In fact when I last sat at the station, I helped an elderly resident to report a traffic incident online, which she was unable to do without support. Yet, there was no support available at the station provided by Tower Hamlets Police.

This policy, published today, is politically induced by both the government and the Mayor of London.

It’s interesting to note that the Met promises to

• ^{Strengthening partnership within the community to help fight crime and further improve trust with all Londoners.}
• ^{increase the use of facial recognition across all boroughs, focusing on crime hotspots.}

Message from Oliver Richter Superintendent Tower Hamlets

Bethnal Green Front Counter To Remain Open

If you would like to report a crime at the police station, you will still be able to, with the front counter at Bethnal Green remaining open from 10am to 10pm on Monday-Friday and between 9am and 7pm at the weekend. Fewer than 1 in 2000 crimes since 2012 were reported at a police station outside of these hours, however we will provide a further update on what to do outside of these hours when the changes come into effect.

If, for whatever reason you do not feel comfortable talking to us, you can stay 100% anonymous by contacting the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 or via their untraceable online form at www.crimestoppers-uk.org.

My comments:

“I am pleased to receive a commendation from the Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime from the Greater London area and that she personally thanks me for the service to the community.

However, I am very concerned about the use of Met Engage as a one size fits all and universal solution, that is widened out over the whole of the UK, removing regional characteristics and autonomy.

The furthest regions of Scotland, Wales are treated the same as inner London with a platform that uses the same communication model throughout the UK. Whilst some regions have other names, the functionality is basically the same.

This restricts local autonomy and makes it highly likely that in future more police forces face amalgamation.

Kaya Komer-Schwartz particularly sees future policing in the community as: _{“You may be aware, the MPS has also launched a new way for Londoners to hear about neighbourhood policing called ‘Met Engage’ and will look to hold more frequent safer neighbourhood surgeries in local community spaces such as libraries, family hubs, local food banks and shopping centres, as well as collaborating with local authorities and partners to signpost the public to appropriate safer spaces and support organisations.”}

Years of community service has taught me that locals never speak up on community spaces with police. It rather has the opposite effect that locals will stay away and not be seen with police in some areas of the Capital.

When we now also read that the Met’s Flying Squad is about to be disbanded as another cost-saving measure, I ask why do fully qualified Met Officers have to conduct community engagement sessions like coffee morning and leaflet sessions as well as maintain a time-consuming public relations campaign when such tasks could easily be carried out by volunteers?

Volunteers can hold coffee mornings, post on social media, engage with people in libraries etc. The Met has a big amount of fully registered and basic vetted volunteers.

We already publish local news on our website and various social media sites. Not sure why the Met can’t allow local volunteers to maintain local publications and community groups or even man station receptions as they used to do?

Cuppa with a copper forces people to speak to police officers in crowded cafes where everyone can overhear the conversation. These officers could instead investigate crime and leave volunteers to meet up with people.

There is no privacy or confidentiality in libraries, family hubs, local food banks and shopping centres.

Our local police station should instal reporting booths to enable those wanting to report online to do so in the station, where they are protected whilst doing so.

Our local Council should stop financing expensive THEO officers at a price that is higher than it would cost to employ a fully qualified and empowered police officer and instead fund more police officers with power of arrest.

To

• Sign up to our mailing list
• Join as member
• learn how to report crime
• Collect your whistle*

Please consider a donation as we support our local police but do NOT receive funding. Visit our Safer Neighbourhoods Page

WiFi and Data connection outage raises concerns

On 13. October 2025, a national WiFi and Data connections outage brought our ability to connect to the Internet or use our data networks.

AM in the morning Met Engage didn’t work for about 2 hours
PM afternoon most main networks hat an outage lasting also around 2 hrs. Again on 15. October 2025 Met Engage had a down-time problem in the afternoon.

It was frightening to realise that without our Internet WiFi and data networks we are unable to connect to even online crime reporting services from Met Police. source

*subject to availability