The volunteer-run front desk at Pinner Police Station closed at the end of February. Despite concerns being raised with the Mayor of London from November, it was not until the day before the closure that I received a reply from his Deputy, which failed to justify the decision to close the service.
Residents may recall that this principally related to repair costs, which were said to be a requirement to meet safety and security standards that would enable volunteers to continue to provide a front desk service to the public. There was no mention of this in the reply from City Hall.
Therefore, with questions remaining unanswered, I wrote to Sir Mark Rowley, Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, in March to seek an explanation.
This month, I received a response from Hayley Stewart, Deputy Assistant Commissioner for Frontline Policing Headquarters. She states that no item-by-item breakdown was prepared for the site and that they did not take the suggestion forward of using volunteers to staff front counters – as was already the case in Pinner – based on learnings from other volunteer sites. I am unsure whether that provides a satisfactory answer to the questions asked.
However, I did read with interest some of the measures the police are using to engage with the community. This is especially important for older and more vulnerable residents, for whom that engagement and visibility is key. I am interested in what may have been learnt from things like weapon sweeps and community licencing patrols and will be writing to the Met to ask whether there is any available data.
