Camden News: Police | Dominic Clout

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Camden News - by PAUL KIELTHY
Published: 5 February 2009

Top cop seeks to allay fears

POLICE chiefs moved this week to play down fears over threats to the “bobby on the beat”.
Borough Commander Dominic Clout wrote to dozens of community activists yesterday (Wednesday) to allay concerns over plans to merge Safer Neighbourhoods Teams (SNT).
The New Journal reported last week how the plans could break the promise laid down by Sir Ian Blair and Ken Livingstone that SNTs would never be taken away for other duties.
Chief Supt Clout’s email said: “The CNJ article... set some hares running and I want to explain what is actually going on.
“The Home Office has announced its Policing Pledge which sets out a series of service and delivery expectations to the public. One of these is that ‘we will respond to every message directed to your Safer Neighbourhoods Team within 24 hours’. Our SNT do not work 24/7 so this poses a problem if we are to provide a meaningful response to your call.”
Safer neighbourhood police teams of six officers were dedicated to each ward in London in 2005.
Chief Supt Clout said he had authorised a plan to “consult” on five of Camden’s 18 teams joining together to provide “better cover and better service”. Residents across many parts of the borough have become deeply attached to their teams, who are often known by name and can be contacted by mobile phone. They are largely credited with achieving Camden’s police’s current public confidence rating of 86 per cent, the highest in the Met.
The borough is divided into three clusters by police – the north, central and south. In each, there are six ward teams.
The new plan, a six-month experiment, will pool five of the six teams in the central cluster.

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