The topic have been dominating the news lately: police budgets cut. Huge cuts to funding and the number of officers on the streets of England and Wales, “would endanger the safety of the public,” as warned by Britain’s most senior police officer and commissioner of the Metropolitan police, Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe. He said: “We are having to face today’s and tomorrow’s challenges with resources going back to the 1970s. That’s when London had a population of around six million, today we are 8.6 million and we believe it will rise to about nine million in 2020.” He further states: “It will get pretty twitchy in terms of coverage of London. There would be less visibility. There would be less of it in the neighbourhoods and in our response section. There is no doubt that we would be slower.” With their forces reduced to 1980s-style policing, the police will respond to crises only, with heavy cuts to prevention and building relationships with communities.
With the pruning back of neighbourhood policing and proactive prevention work which stops crime levels rising, as well as the widespread concern over the changing face of policing, and discussions of an end of ‘bobbies on the beat’, it is uncertain how these changes will affect crime rates and investigations.
As such, high-ranking police officials are advising home and business owners to take personal steps to preventing crime.
Craig Mackay, Deputy Commissioner of London’s Metropolitan Police Service, recommended a move towards the public helping the police more, such as handing over CCTV footage from personal cameras to help with investigations. He said: “Getting people involved and the whole notion of people being active in crime prevention and crime detection work with us has got to be part of the future”.
Whatever happens, this is the best opportunity for homeowners to take responsibility by protecting their community and property. Indeed, although CCTV cameras can help a struggling police force, prevention is still better than cure. Installing the appropriate security measures than can act as an effective barrier against burglary and vandalism will be a first step to ensure opportunistic criminals are deterred.
The first and fundamental step to ensuring the safety of your homes is the installation of our security grilles, such as the RSG1000 and RSG1200 Collapsible Grilles. As for businesses, we have a range of roller shutters and steel security doors – Independently tested to the industry standard of PAS24, Secured by Design and the recognised LPS1175 ratings approved by the LPCB (Loss Prevention Certification Board).
Afterall, at RSG Security, we do not just aim at making Britain safer with our range of security products, but ultimately secure each and every homes and businesses in the capital with our London Installation Specialists.
