Croydon BID recently had the pleasure of hosting BCU Commander Nick Blackburn, alongside A/Chief Inspector James Weston, for a guided tour of Croydon town centre with BID Director of Operations Shaun Webster and the Street Ranger team. The visit offered a valuable chance to connect with local businesses, explore the town centre’s key areas, and discuss how the BID and police can work together to tackle challenges and enhance safety.
We’ve now taken the conversation further with an in-depth Q&A with BCU Commander Blackburn, where he responds to the questions that matter most to Croydon’s businesses, residents, and town centre visitors.
Q1. The Metropolitan Police is clearly undergoing a period of significant change through the ‘New Met for London’ plan. What impact will this have on the day-to-day policing service in Croydon town centre?
Part of the New Met for London focuses on our Neighbourhoods strand. It is a front-line focused plan, and so I think there is a really good news story for the town centre. We already have a Town Centre Team, as well as enhanced ward teams with more officers and PCSOs. We are going to benefit from some promising new technology, in the form of live facial recognition cameras. There are lots of opportunities for us to help build the town centre into a thriving, safe place that people want to visit.
Q2. What are your immediate priorities for Croydon town centre, and how do you plan to work collaboratively with local businesses, residents, and organisations like Croydon BID to achieve them?
Operation Retail focuses on working with commercial operators to drive down retail crime. We have had some really significant results, with improvements in detections and prosecutions. I am clear that working in partnership is the most effective way to deliver policing. My neighbourhood’s officers are crimefighters first and foremost, but we will continue to listen to communities to understand what is important to them and to use our relationships to help make the area safer.
Q3. Croydon town centre (particularly Fairfield and Broad Green wards) consistently ranks high for various crime types across London. What specific measures and resources are being deployed to reduce crime and improve public safety?
All town centres are busy environments, and with that comes unique challenges. Firstly, a visible policing presence is helpful in tackling all types of offending. Often the focus is on our Neighbourhoods strand, but we have many other officers who work in the town centre including our Response Teams and Proactive Teams. Anywhere with high footfall will always see increased levels of criminality, and this is the case with Croydon town centre. I am really encouraged by the use of live facial recognition, which I think will be transformative to the town centre in terms of our ability to catch and deter offenders.
Q4. Officer abstractions continue to place pressure on local resources, particularly in known hotspot areas like the town centre. What steps can be taken to secure or ring-fence dedicated resources to mitigate these challenges?
This is a real challenge for policing. There are significant demands which pull officers away from their normal duties, to police high-profile events or protests. The Senior Leadership Team monitor this closely and are constantly looking for ways to ensure we get officers out on the street, visible and servicing the public. Ring-fencing an officer in one location often means we have to take more officers from elsewhere. The Met, as a whole, is increasingly using officers from a wider range of functions to support front-line policing and reduce the abstraction of Neighbourhoods officers.
Q5. Public safety is about more than just crime rates – perception plays a key role. How do you plan to improve community confidence in Croydon as a safe place to live, work, and visit?
Much of what the public know about policing is based on the news and, perhaps, when policing is in the headlines for the wrong reasons. Every day, hundreds of officers do fantastic work dealing with criminality, protecting vulnerable victims and helping people feel safe. We are increasingly releasing body-worn video to demonstrate our officers’ professionalism and the work that they do, which is often unseen. We have also introduced Met Engage, a new tool for us to tell people about what is happening in their local area, as well as highlight the work we are doing. I would encourage anyone who has an interest in Croydon to sign up here:
Sign Up – Met Engage.
Q6. Looking ahead, what does success look like for you in your first year as BCU Commander for Croydon?
I think it looks like improving crime rates within the town centre, improving our detection rates, providing greater reassurance to the people of Croydon, and greater collaboration with Croydon BID and wider partners within Croydon. My overarching aim is to build a greater sense of safety for people within Croydon town centre.
Q7. If you could make one request of the business community to help support your crime reduction goals, what would it be?
To work in collaboration with us and our designing out crime advisers and teams, both locally and centrally, to target harden commercial premises and invest in market-leading technology where that is possible, so that together we have the best possible chance of improving crime rates and positive outcomes within Croydon.
Croydon BID looks forward to building on its strong working relationship with BCU Commander Blackburn and the Town Centre Team, to keep Croydon town centre safe, welcoming, and thriving.
