We live in Honor Oak and my partner had a visit from a plain clothes officer the other night. Her description of this interview made me suspiscious as well. But I contacted the local Safer Neighbourhood Team and they confirmed that door-to-door interviews were being carried out in the area. Quote:-

''I can confirm that over the last month plain clothes police officers have been calling at address around your road.

Currently there is a real drive to identify an individual thought to be committing crime in your area and that's the reason for what appears to be intrusive questions.

Every household in the area will be asked the same questions.
Please be reassured that our aim is to reduce burglary and I thank you and your partner for assisting my colleagues.

If you have any other questions please call me on 0208 721 2485

Regards

Warren Gregory PS48PL
Crofton Park Safer Neighbourhood Team''

So now we know. If you're of a paranoid frame of mind, I suppose that you might imagine that the real subject of the investigations was terrorist activity or organised drug-crime. It did seem strange to be conducting a burglary investifgation but not to provide a description of the burglar. And the line of questioning seemed to consist of collecting the personal details of the household's occupants - then asking them to corroborate the details that their neighbours had already provided!