Fantastic Community Engagement event held by East Area police officers at HASWA.

Havering Asian Social and Welfare Association (HASWA) yesterday, 14 June, held a special safety event hosted by Chief Inspector Jas Kaur and local Met Police officers.

The four female officers came to speak to members of HASWA in Elm Park, about safety and violence against women and girls.

HASWA are a fantastic charity that do incredible work in our community. They host daily events for the borough and support the local community the best way they can. Manjit who works at the Elm Park charity, is an incredible lady who spends every day helping her community.

Yesterday’s visit saw the Neighbourhoods Chief Inspector Kaur who is also the Chair of of the first National Women of Colour in Policing Uk, talk to the group about the importance of making sure all voices are heard across London.

Jas set up a Met wide initiative entitled ‘Girls, Women, Engagement Network’ (GWEN) where she actively engages with communities to talk about the importance of women’s safety. Her scheme began after noticing on the Home Office scheme Street Safe, that not all women’s voices were heard and that there were many communities where women did not speak out.

She then made it her mission to actively engage with these groups to make sure that their voices were equally represented and that the police as an organisation knew what their concerns were.

Jas told the group, “Street Safe did not reflect all women and it needs to. Basic policing is about talking with your communities and hearing what their concerns are and I wanted to make sure all voices were heard.”

The Chief Inspector spoke about the work Met officers do across London to target violence against women and domestic violence. The community engaged well with the officers and shared their concerns and worries openly.

Jas was extremely well received by HASWA members and was able to engage with them genuinely and talk to them not only as a police officer, but also as a woman of colour. She was able to open a door for the police that had previously been closed.

Chief Inspector Kaur is a credit to the Met Police and as a matter of fact, not only does she encourage fantastic police community engagement, but her hands on approach where she leads by example, promotes the confidence in police officers that the Met are trying to rebuild.

She has been a police officer for 27 years and openly spoke about being the only woman of colour at her police station when she first joined the Met Police and is still now the only female Sikh Chief Inspector across London. Her accomplishments are many and they have come through her incredible determination and hard work and her genuine approach of actively listening to her community.

The Met and London communities need many more officers like Jas. She has created an incredible legacy for other Sikh women who wish to join the police and follow in her footsteps.

The officers were well received and encouraged to return to HASWA.

Events such as this are what are needed across London. They show the importance of officers listening to their communities and working hand in hand with them. They also rebuild the trust in our police force.

Well done to Chief Inspector Jas Kaur and her officers for their great community engagement. Jas, you really are a credit to the Met Police.

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