Great partnership working between Havering Council’s CCTV team and the Romford Town Centre Police Team (TCT) has seen a dangerous weapon taken off the streets of the borough.
Recently, the CCTV monitoring team spotted two men in possession of drugs outside one of the town centre's night-time venues and informed the police.
Officers from the TCT went to the area and approached the two men, one of whom ran off.
A chase on foot began and the man was stopped and was found to have the weapon on him. The other man was in possession of drugs. Investigations continue.
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Havering Council’s environmental enforcement teams are doubling up with the borough’s CCTV team to targeting the scourge of fly-tippers.
It includes linking CCTV cameras from the control room to hotspot areas. In one six-week period, over 50 incidents of suspected environmental crime were reported to the service teams, resulting in £3,600 in Fixed Penalty Notices served to offenders.
The crackdown has also extended to unlicensed waste carriers, with the environment enforcement team carrying out on-the-spot visits to Gerpins Lane tip.
The action is part of Operation HILT and follows a recent change in the East London Waste Authority (ELWA) booking system. ELWA is responsible for the disposing of waste on behalf of the Council.
The changes are to help reduce undeclared commercial waste, reduce costs and improve recycling.
It was found that many suspected waste carriers were trying to avoid making payment for the disposal of commercial waste and not booking a slot for their visits to the reuse site.
Residents who use a van or trailer to take rubbish and items to Gerpins Lane tip are advised to check out the booking details before visiting.
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If residents are out and about over the festive season and feel unsafe in any situation, they can get help by just asking for “Angela.”
Ask for Angela is a codeword aimed at helping people who feel unsafe on dates or just out socially in the borough’s pubs, clubs and entertainment venues.
The codeword notifies bar staff in a discreet way to situations where people may feel unsafe or uncomfortable.
Once alerted, staff will then take the person asking for help away from the situation and offer to call them a taxi to ensure they can leave unnoticed and safely.
It is another example of partnership working between the Council, police and local venues to keep Havering a safe and fun place to spend time.
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Havering Council’s trading standards team have taken a number of illegal skin lightening products off the borough’s streets.
Following an investigation which included a number of test purchase visits, the Council’s trading standards officers, along with enforcement and police officers, raided a Romford business recently.
They seized 1,400 skin lightening items which included soaps, serums, creams, and lotions. All of these products are non-compliant with UK regulations or are illegal to sell within the UK.
The estimated retail value of the products is around £21,000.
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Havering’s enforcement team fined a food waste contractor £400 after its staff failed to clear up food waste that could have caused a health hazard.
Rotting meat was left lying on the ground after falling out of a food container at the back of businesses in Elm Park as it was being taken away to be incinerated.
It was being collected from a business by the contractor, who drove away having failed to let the retailer know the spillage had happened.
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 Recent action by the Havering Joint Taskforce (HJTF) saw them making over 30 arrests as part of Operation Hickman. The offences ranged from drug possession to handling stolen goods and burglary.
Officers in the taskforce also stopped a car thief in their tracks recently. Along with colleagues from East Intercept team and traffic police, they pursued a cloned Hyundai vehicle in Hornchurch. Investigations are continuing after a number of arrests were made at the scene.
You can see more information on the number of incidents the HJTF have been involved in on the infographic above. Follow the HJTF @MPSHavering
Havering Council’s enforcement and community safety teams are now fully trained on how to use bleed kits.
Training has also been given to over 200 staff from Havering’s secondary schools as the Council continues the roll-out of the kits across the borough.
The equipment can be used in the event of an emergency where there is a need to seal a wound while waiting for further emergency help to arrive.
Kits are also being delivered by the Council’s community safety team to other areas as part of its roll-out, including night-time venues and licensees, community centres and leisure centres.
The Council is also continuing to work with Havering Police and Sue Hedges, on behalf of the Ricky Hayden Memorial charity. Sue lost her son Ricky when he was fatally stabbed in 2016. The charity donated a bleed kit to the new Rainham Leisure Centre earlier this year.
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Havering Council’s trading standards team have once again taken dangerous counterfeit cigarettes and vapes off the borough’s streets.
After gathering evidence in an investigation over several weeks as part of Operation CeCe, the team along with officers from Havering police, raided two Romford businesses recently.
They seized 535 vapes, and over 400 boxes of cigarettes. All of these items were either non-compliant with UK regulations or illegal to sell within the UK. The estimated retail value of these items is thought to be around £12,000.
Council officers were joined by police officers and Council-funded sniffer dogs, who are specially trained to detect tobacco.
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Chris McAvoy is Head of Environmental Enforcement and Community Safety for Havering Council.
Here he talks about some of the key work that our enforcement and community teams are providing across the borough.
I currently manage a service that consists of the Council’s uniformed and street-based Enforcement Team, the Community Safety Team and CCTV team.
When residents are out and about across the borough, the Enforcement Team will be recognisable in their uniforms and in marked Council vehicles as they carry out their patrols. They are there to provide a visual and reassuring presence dealing with ASB (Anti-Social Behaviour) and environment crime.
The Council has a number of crime-related statutory duties which are managed by the Community Safety Team via the Havering Community Safety Partnership (HCSP) which is chaired by the Council’s CEO Andrew Blake-Herbert.
The HCSP meets quarterly and is formed of Council, Police and other statutory partners. The HCSP oversees and collates the work of a number of other boards that report in to it, and works closely with MOPAC (Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime) to tackle priority crimes.
Operationally, the Community Safety Team works closely with police to try and reduce crime in Havering by analysing data on crime trends, creating plans to tackle key issues and ensuring combined resources are prioritised to disrupt that crime and work towards preventing harm to residents. Much of the data we use comes via engagement days and consultations (so we ask residents to complete these surveys to help us identify issues).
The CCTV control room operates 24-hours a day. The team monitors about 400 cameras across the borough and they are in constant contact with the police via a radio system.
The CCTV team has been responsible for thousands of proactive investigations resulting in dozens of arrests for crimes such as robbery, burglary, firearms possession and assaults.
We are currently looking to upgrade our CCTV network to a digital system, which will be more reliable and allow us to gather better quality evidence in future.
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Burglars are often opportunistic thieves and seek out any opening that they can take advantage of, specifically doors and windows that are left open or unlocked or are easy to force.
Anything of value that they might spot through a window will only spur them on.
Here's what to look out for and help you keep your home safer.
- Burglars target homes they think will contain valuables. A sure giveaway is leaving packaging from outside your front door.
- Burglars often look for homes with windows or doors left open or with vulnerable features that they can exploit.
- Burglars are aware of the times when someone is expected to be away from their house such as during the school run.
- Burglars typically do not want to be seen or heard and if they feel that they would be noticed by a neighbour or passerby then they are more likely to feel exposed and may move on to find somewhere else to burgle.
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Havering Council’s enforcement team are continuing to crack down on those who don’t clean up after their dogs or think it is ok to drop litter.
Since June 2023, they have issued 3,290 fines for those offences.
The uniformed officers can also hand out FPNs (Fixed Penalty Notices) for being in breach of our PSPOs (Public Space Protection Orders).
The officers are provided by NES (National Enforcement Solutions) to work on behalf of the Council and to work alongside our existing enforcement team.
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Havering Council’s trading standards team has returned to court to ensure a company director who was prosecuted for selling unsafe electrical goods, pays back the profit he made.
Rizwan Nasir (52), of Havering, was given a three-month prison sentence for offences of failing to comply with the requirements of safety regulations, last year. The sentence was suspended for 18 months.
Following, what is known as a proceeds of crime investigation, the Council’s trading standards team returned to court in August to ask for the removal of the money Nasir made as profit, thought to be around £50k, from the sale of the unsafe goods.
The Court heard that Nasir has £38K of that money available and he has been given three months to pay that amount back. If he does not pay, he will face a prison sentence of at least seven months. In addition, he was asked to pay a contribution of £2k towards the costs of the investigation.
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During November and December, our community safety teams were out across the borough leading and supporting events around the White Ribbon Day and 16 Days of Action campaigns.
The campaigns raise awareness about Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) and all gender-based violence. This year’s theme was “Change the Story” - with the aim of asking people to make choices that will help others live free from the fear of domestic violence.
The Council’s teams, along with police and other community partners, led and took part in workshops and sessions, including going to secondary schools and colleges to speak to young people, as well as helping to deliver training to the borough’s safeguarding board.
They also worked alongside Havering Police in walk and talk sessions. For more information on how to report or get help, visit the website.
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The OWL (Online Watch Link) makes it easier for residents, businesses and communities across the borough to keep up to speed with crimes and anti-social behaviour in their areas, report it, and hear directly about the action being taken.
It can be downloaded for free and a notification is received as soon as a new alert is sent by local police officers or Council community safety officers.
All the information is on a secure platform and the aim is to improve the sharing of such information between the Police, Council and safer neighbourhood groups.
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