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Senior Street Warden Frank Quammie, left with Lib Dem councillors Ben Rawlings, Camden's crime chief and Keith Moffitt, council leader |
'Hire your own sniffer dogs' police tell market traders
Police are losing battle 'against a bunch of 16-year olds' say stallholders
POLICE have told Camden Town traders to club together and stump up their own money for a sniffer dog to track down drugs.
Under-siege businesses in Inverness Street, whose customers are pestered by dealers on a daily basis, want the trained dog to root out secret caches of cannabis and crack cocaine.
But Inspector John Daly – the senior officer in charge of the area – told a meeting with traders on Monday that police could not provide the service because the problem was not considered serious enough.
Instead, according to traders, he told them they could hire their own dog at £200 a day.
Street wardens are currently checking at least 30 sites, including under market stalls, every day.
In one find a package of lumpy crack cocaine thought to be worth around £3,000 was found secreted in brickwork on Friday afternoon.
The ball is also in the court of the new Liberal Democrat and Conservative partnership now in control of the Town Hall.
On Wednesday, council leader Councillor Keith Moffitt, a Lib Dem, and Conservative chief Councillor Andrew Marshall visited the street.
Their visit was designed to promote a new ‘stocktake’ of how the council has fared at beating crime.
The review – expected to last three months – will analyse the quickfire use of Anti-Social Behaviour Orders (Asbos) adopted by their Labour predecessors.
The council chiefs donned day-glow vests and red caps, the uniform of the council-funded street wardens, as they toured the area.
Senior street warden Frank Quammie told them: “I think a sniffer dog would be a good idea. I think it would find a lot of drugs. We can’t be here all of the time.”
Cllr Marshall said: “We want to spend council resources on getting results. All current work designed to tackle anti-social behaviour will carry on as usual during this time while we analyse what has worked in Camden and what doesn’t.”
In the latest Asbo case Abdi Aden, 19, was banned from Camden Tow for three years by Highbury Corner Magistrates. Police found him peddling cannabis six times in the last five months. He was explicitly linked to a group close-knit known as The Centric Gang during a court hearing two weeks ago. It is the first time the gang’s name and organisation has been openly discussed. Chris Singam, who owns a series of bars in Inverness Street including Bar Gansa and Made in Brasil, said many traders had now “given up hope”.
He added: “There is constant vagrancy and young kids loitering and intimidating passers-by.
“There is the constant drug pushing and the general tardiness of the street.” Other suggestions reportedly made by Inspector Daly at Monday’s meeting included emailing police at Kentish Town Station if traders were unable to get through on land lines.
The meeting was organised by Camden Town Unlimited, a group formed to collect extra money from shops to pay for improvements on the streets. A trader, who did not want to be named, said: “It’s shameful that the police could be so flippant about it.
“If we do catch the dealers with the sniffer dog, what are we supposed to do next? They are basically losing the battle against a bunch of 16-year-olds.
“There is supposed to be a controlled drinking zone here but no one follows it – and the police do nothing about it.”
Businesses already pay general rates and many have ploughed extra money into Camden Town Unlimited in the hope of seeing better results.
Berry Casey, manager of Hache Burgers, said he would consider chipping in even more money to pay for a sniffer dog, if other traders agreed to the idea. He said: “In an ideal world, the police would allocate their resources to doing it.
“But I am a pragmatist. We have done our best with the restaurant and it is frustrating that our customers still feel intimidated. It seems to me that resources are so stretched it is something we should consider.”
Inspector Daly was unavailable for comment but a police spokeswoman said: “The issue of a drugs dog in the Town Centre was discussed at the meeting. Camden Town Unlimited mentioned difficulties in getting drugs dogs.
“It was mentioned that private companies had drugs dogs that could be hired. This was put forward as a suggestion and was not advised, purely to open up options available to Camden Town Unlimited.”
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