On several occasions I have written about the introduction of the Local Policing Model. There was a public consultation in January at Queen Mary University attended by the Deputy Mayor for London, Assistant Commissioner Byrne and many senior police officers from Tower Hamlets including myself. Things have moved on quite quickly and at the end of March the Mayor’s Office made an announcement on the revised opening times for local police stations across London. Many people agree it is far better to have police officers on the street responding to calls rather than waiting at a front counter at times when very few people use the facility. In summary, Bethnal Green Police Station will remain open 24/7 and Limehouse and Brick Lane Police Stations will be open during the day. In additional there will be four Contact Points at Bow Police Station, Poplar Police office, Isle of Dogs Police Station and St.George’s Town Hall which will be open every Wednesday and Thursday between 7pm and 8pm and every Saturday afternoon between 2pm and 3pm.

One other important change under the LPM will involve the Safer Neighbourhoods Teams. There will still be a dedicated team for each of the 17 wards in Tower Hamlets. Each ward will have more officers than before and will be grouped into four quadrants each with their own Inspector.

At the same time we are taking the opportunity to review the deployments of all our staff, uniform and CID. This is going to result in more officers being posted to the Safer Neighbourhoods inline with the Commissioner’s objective of putting more staff on the front line. These changes will come into effect about June but you will be kept updated with changes before they happen. You can be assured these changes will not affect our ability to deliver a efficient 999 emergency service as the response teams will be maintained.

To find out more about the LPM I would encourage you to come along to any of the public meetings or street briefing that take place regularly in every ward.