Regarding my earlier crime prevention message I'd like to say many thanks to those of you who took this message in the spirit that it was intended. For those of you that have misinterpreted some of the advice I'm happy to discuss this further with you on 0208 721 2480 or 0207 232 7612.

Sergeant Phil Moore

This post was last modified: 28-11-2014 10:12 AM by Forest Hill SNT.

1 person agreed with the tone of the advice, the rest of us thought it was poorly worded and things like this need to be worded carefully.

Phil,

I think "Avoid walking the streets or using public transport alone at night", is difficult to misinterpret.

Just for the record, I've only seen police officers once in Forest Hill (during the dark evenings), and I walk through FH each and every night at varying times. On the one occasion I did see two officers, they were stood in the well lit station chatting to staff.

Regardless of if "walking the beat" is effective, it's dramitically influences people perception of safety, I'd argue that this is half the problem.

There are far more important things he can be spending his time on than wordsmithing emails.

Anyone understands precisely what the spirit of the message intended was. Give the guy a break.

Does anyone else feel a tiny bit patronised by the above message from SNT?

sundancekid77 - I agree there may be more important things to do. There are also probably more important things they could do instead of tweeting, for example.

Showing a presence, walking these "poorly lit streets" would make me feel safer. Being told not to walk in the dark does not, "spirit intended" or not.

But I fully appreciate that decisions on how they spend their time are not necessarily down to the officers themselves.

Good to be on the right side of the law this time! I think the SNT wrote a perfectly understandable email that has been pulled to bits and criticised principally because it doesn't cater for everyone's individual circumstances. Telling people to avoid dark places is common sense to me!

Regardless of how it was worded, I like to think I got the gist of it. I have to agree with the sentiment of point made, we get it. Could have been worded better, but understand the general warning.

With regards to the polices use of Twitter and other social media, I think its a great step forwards and am happy to see Forest Hill SNT made it to the party now.

We all have our own unique way of getting our message across, and somehow 99% of the time we get what the other person means.

What has to also be remembered is that policing has moved on a LONG way since the days of a bobby on the beat with a whistle and a length of lignum vitae in their pocket, commanding respect over all walks of life. The dynamic has changed and so has society. Therefore a lot of the officers are in cars and able to respond over a wide area quickly. If they were all on foot people would complain they were in the wrong place and took too long to arrive.

At the end of the day, the general message is be careful out there, and don't make yourself a target.

Maybe some interaction between the SNT and the concerned members of the forum would be a good idea?

I for one would feel a lot more safe if i saw neighbourhood police walking the area around London Road, Dartmouth Road and station between the hours of 8pm-midnight.

Its info like that which is important for SNT to know, so they can pinpoint areas and times which affect people the most.
Im sure that positive and constructive comments such as this are the way forward for the relationship between the Met and the locals.

There are truly limited numbers available to do such patrols these days, especially on foot. But I can totally get where you are coming from. And hopefully the local SNT will see comments such as yours and see what can be done. Obviously there is a finite resource available, but the most common areas of concern could possibly periodically be addressed.