Ealing Borough Police are advising people to keep cash, mobile phones and personal belongings out of sight in the street robbery hotspots like train and tube stations during the latest Safer streets campaign which will be running for 12 days from Monday 24th May 2004.

Operation Safer Streets is the Metropolitan Police Service response to street robbery within London and was first implemented on Ealing Borough in April 2002. Since it’s implementation this has had great success in bringing down levels of street robbery within Ealing Borough.

Detective Sergeant Charlie Morrow told us, “During Operation Safer Streets: ‘Out of sight is safer’ working with our partners particularly the London borough of Ealing we are deploying a wide range of crime reduction tactics. These will include covert policing, increasing our resource capability to respond fast term to robbery offences and increased uniform policing in our robbery hotspot areas. We are determined to drive down street robbery on Ealing Borough even further.

We are fully committed to reducing street robbery on Ealing Borough and we have had success. However the public has a role to play too and that is what this campaign is about. The message is simple: keep valuables out of sight whenever possible, especially at crime hotspots like tube and train stations. When you do have to take your phone or cash out in a public place, be aware of who’s around you. Street robbers tend to be opportunistic – don’t make yourself an easy target.

Street crime has always been a priority in Ealing Borough and we welcome the increased focus that the recent ‘Safer Streets’ campaign has brought. Ealing is ready to take on a leading role and welcomes the opportunity to be part of the latest campaign which is a major strike back against street crime.”

May 28, 2004