Christmas uplift boost as Croydon BID Street Rangers team grows

As Croydon town centre gears up for the festive season, the busiest trading period of the year, Croydon BID has enhanced its commitment to provide greater visibility, security, and safety by uplifting the size of its Street Ranger team.
Croydon BID has agreed to enhance its investment and funding of the Street Ranger team from four officers to six officers from 20th November to 31st December 2023 to provide greater visibility, support, security, and intelligence as we look to work collectively in reducing the impact of business crime.

The impact of the increased investment into the Croydon BID Ranger team will see patrolling hours increased from 1,280 to 1,600 across a six-week period.

Introduced in July 2022, our team of four Street Rangers work with the town centre business community offering a uniformed presence, greater visibility while acting as a conduit to collect greater intelligence between the business community and our partners including the Croydon Metropolitan Police Service (MPS).

The Croydon BID Street Rangers have become an ever-present sight across Croydon town centre offering support to businesses. Over the past quarter, the Croydon BID Street Rangers have engaged with 1875 businesses, attended 90 active incidents, resulting in 15 arrests.

Our Croydon BID Street Rangers continue to work closely with partners and in particular Croydon Metropolitan Police Service (MPS). This has included weapon sweeps and the recent Safer Action Business Week which resulted in four arrests, six community protection notices, and two penalty notices for disruption.

The investment in to increased capacity and coverage of our Croydon BID Street Rangers will, we hope, offer a further layer of safety to those that use the town centre as the Christmas season gets underway. The impact of business crime, rising levels of Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) and shoplifting on our high streets is an important issue for us all to address. Our increased commitment both to the Street Ranger service but also our funding of additional police resources demonstrates our resolve to supporting our town centre.
Shaun Webster, Director of Operations at Croydon BID

Businesses across Croydon town centre are encouraged to sign up to the Croydon BID Radio Link to improve communications, intelligence gathering and on street support response.

Our Croydon BID Street Ranger team, trained in diffusing and de-escalating conflicts, can be contacted via the Croydon BID Radio Link to support situations of concern for businesses, employees, and member of the public.

The Radio Link enables effective information sharing among all stakeholders, including police, hospitality venues, and retail businesses.

To apply for a Croydon BID Radio Link, businesses should get in touch with Croydon BID. Businesses are reminded to call the police at 999 in case of an emergency or call 101 for non-emergency cases related to crime.