Regular Meetings To Be Held With Elm Park Retailers, Police Officers And Councillors To Battle ShopLifting.

A meeting was held in Elm Park yesterday, 25 November, organised by Ward Councillors Barry Mugglestone and Julie Wilkes and local retailers. Councillors have been working with police officers and retailers to combat the ongoing issues of shoplifting across the local area and this was one of numerous meetings that has taken place over the last few months.

Alongside councillors and retailers was Neighbourhoods Inspector for South Hornchurch, Inspector Connolly and his officers who have been working hard in the area to reduce the level of shoplifting and target regular offenders.

Officers spoke of the vital importance of reporting every incident and communicating with the local officers as much as they can to help identify thieves targeting Elm Park.

Inspector Connolly and his Elm Park Safer Neighbourhood Team spoke to staff from Costa Coffee and other outlets to discuss matters of shoplifting across Sainsbury’s, Tesco and The Co-operative.

The local policing team is being led by PS Atkin who has invested significant time with local officers to encourage businesses to contact them and discuss regular offending patterns and to ensure that the reporting of theft and crimes are done correctly. Ward officers PC Donaldson, PC Zajanckauskas and PCSO Kasbia attended and emphasised that they carry out regular patrols and speak with local business managers on a regular basis.

This regular shop meeting will take place every other month and is being supported locally by Costa Coffee as a meeting point. More dates will be published and can be found on the local Elm Park Web Page.

PS Atkin told the Havering Daily: “Its vitally important that managers from the local community attend and discuss matters with my team. We need accurate reporting standards to be met to allow my officers to deal with regular offenders. At this stage a limited amount of businesses attended. We need to come together to ensure a strong communication network is built to identify the regular offenders and bring them before the court. Without local business leaders engaging with my team it makes it very difficult to achieve effective policing. I would encourage local shops to speak directly with my team or email us directly on  https://www.met.police.uk/area/your-area/met/havering/elm-park/contact-us/crime-map
Today is a small step in partnership working and we fully support the local community and business community in tackling this issue.”

Councillor Barry Mugglestone told the Havering Daily:

“A very productive meeting with the local Elm Park SNT team and shops regarding shop lifting, i am pleased that all stakeholders want to deal with these issues and i will continue to support the shops and their employees.”

Officers, Councillors and retailers at yesterday’s meeting.

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