Chief Superintendent Matthew Gardner talks about burglary, European forces and Operation Condor in this week’s column

This week I want to update you about on three things: burglary, working with European police colleagues and Operation Condor.

Regarding burglary, we currently have less crimes compared to last year but this is when cowardly criminals cause most distress to people’s lives due to the long dark nights.

We are taking the fight back to thieves: you may have heard that we are working with SmartWater in some of our most challenged crime areas.

Your Safer Neighbourhoods Teams have been working with the community we serve and have marked their personal belongings in nearly 500 homes with an invisible ink that shows up under ultra violet light. If the criminal steals from that home and we check the property, we can link it back to the owner. I will keep you updated.

As a final reminder, please help us to help you. Keep your home secure, leave a light and radio on when you go out, move dustbins away so they can’t be climbed on to access your home and ensure tools are locked away as burglars use anything they can find to break in. Lock all windows, especially rear patio doors.

Speak with your neighbours and report anything suspicious to police.

Please remember, it is very unlikely you will be burgled and often we think crime is a lot worse than it is.

This week we have colleagues from Poland working with us. The purpose is to link intelligence between the UK and Poland to ensure that any arrests we make on foreign nationals are cross referenced and intelligence is shared. We did this type of work during the Olympics and it proved very successful so we are simply doing it again. I will update you with results next week.

Officers from the Safer Neighbourhoods Teams and Partnership Unit took part in Operation Condor, a major capital-wide crackdown by the Metropolitan Police Service on crimes relating to licensable activities issues. 40 pawnbrokers and jewellers shops were visited and issued with ultra violet lights and posters promoting identifying potential stolen property that may be subject to SmartWater.

Drugs warrants were executed resulting in one arrest at West Coast bar for possession with intent to supply cannabis. The Cadets visited 13 premises in relation to the sale of alcohol to those under age. Two failed and sold to the cadets and were issued with fines and warned over license breaches. Licensing impacts upon everyday community life and we will continue to commit resources to this and work extremely hard with our partners to tackle these areas in the future.

As ever, if you have any information on crime matters, we will act. You can call us on Crimestoppers (0800 555 111), 101, or your local Safer Neighbourhood Team Teams accessed via the Met Police Website (www.met.police.cu.uk).

In an emergency, call 999. For daily updates and information about what is happening in Brent, you can follow us on Twitter at @MPSBrent

Thank you for your continued support.

Matthew Gardner

Borough Commander Brent Police.