Police Open Their Doors And Welcome The Community To Their Police Station.

As the sun shone across east London, many members of the community including Havering, joined officers at Ilford Police Station on Saturday, 8 March. Officers from the East Area Borough Command Unit joined together with specialist officers to host a family friendly event.

 The community had the opportunity to chat with local neighbourhood officers and specialist officers from Mounted Branch, Dog Unit, Armed Response, TSG and Scenes of Crimes (forensics) to learn about their roles. 

Children were able to sit on a police motorbike and there were different police vehicles for people to look at including two from the Met’s historic fleet.  Those who came along could hold shields and see inside a public order carrier, try on uniform and meet police horses and dogs. Public and Personal Safety Instructors were on hand giving demonstrations and the public had the chance to do baton strikes against an officer wearing a Full Contact Training Suit and see handcuffs. 

Local officers greeted the public who turned out in their thousands, speaking about their roles and answering questions to all those they engaged with.  Crime prevention stalls were also popular as were Redbridge Council’s Community Safety stall and St Johns Ambulance who gave life saving CPR demonstrations. Also present were Youth Unity and Premier League Kicks which proved popular with younger attendees and who play vital roles in our communities.

Officers were pleased to offer the public a unique opportunity to visit custody without being under arrest, meeting the Met’s Detention team including officers and custody nurses, take a tour of the cells, try the evidential breathalyser and even have ink fingerprints taken which, they could take home as a souvenir. 

Clare McCarthy, Superintendent for Redbridge said

“Thank you to everybody who came along to our Police Open Day on Saturday for our ‘New Met For London’ event.  It has been absolutely brilliant to see the community and so many families coming together with Met officers to see what we do.  We were also able to celebrate International Womens Day and highlight some of our amazing women in the Met, showing many opportunities for women in the police.”

“We need people to understand what the police do, as we police by consent in this country and in order to maintain policing by consent, we need the trust of the communities we serve.  By opening the doors to the police station, it gave people the opportunity to come in and speak to our officers in an informal way.  We hope that by welcoming the community and giving an insight into what we do at a family fun event, goes towards rebuilding the trust in our service”.

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