help! our street's in the middle of crime wave

[bakedpotatohoho]

we live in a quietish street in london with a fairly lively community spirit.
in the last few weeks 6 nearby houses have been burgled at various times of day.
in the last week, 2 of our neighbours have had their cars nicked overnight.
does anyone know, do we have a right to demand more police presence, especially at night?

You could demand it but I doubt you'll get it :(
might be worth phoning them up and trying and seeing what they say, but it'll probably all be flannel anyway (she said cynically)

Could you get on to your local councillor, or MP even?

What about a neighbourhood watch scheme? They're pretty easy to organise (so I've heard anyway).

That sounds awful. I agree with bells, write to your local councillor and MP. I have to say that I wrote to my local MP when my parent's place got burgled as like your street, quite a few places had been broken into. We didn't even get a reply

you should have a community police man (woman)- can you try rining the local station? We had this last year - about 6 houses (incuding ours - and they made off in our car !) were burgled in the space of a few weeks - something to do with nights drawing in and not many people around. Your local police station should also have a crime prevention person - maybe you could oragnise a few neighbours to meet?

Everything so far, but you do need to get a neighbourhood watch on the go asap. Would also recomend trying to get the street lighting level increased. These people are in your street because its probably the softest target, you have to change that.

i just rang the police station. WPC was so rude, i cannot begin to describe it. she used a lot of jargon. at one point, i asked her what 'parade' meant. she said, elaborately patient, 'i'm just explaining that to you.' then she went on waffling. i thought i'd worked out the definition basically, that 'parade' meant 'special beat' and got a bit cocky (esp since she'd said that our crime rate did sound much higher than normal) so i asked 'should i assume that we're on the parade then?'

she sighed and said, 'from that i can tell that you haven't understood what parade means at all.'

i am going to try the council now. no wonder the crims are having such a beanfeast.

I know it won't solve the problem but could you park your car at a friends house until the crime wave calms down,

Have you got security lights with sensor things?

sorry can't be much more help.

we have security light for porch, car has alarm, as has our house (though we don't usually stick it on at night, as it's got sensors for the ground floor, and you know what it's like in the middle of the night when you want a glass of water.)
the street lighting isn't too bad, it's fairly quiet so you'd expect to hear glass being broken etc, and we are all quite nosy/community-minded as it is. isn't this quite Neighbourhood Watchy, but without the stickers?
put call into councillor. will he ever call me back?

He wants your vote doesn't he

And if he doesn't, ring him again - and have a good go! You're entitled!

The best thing you can do is make it as difficult as poss for theive sto get in your house, keep valuables out of sight, fit burglar alarm to hosue and car (says she who has been burgled and had car broken into).

Oooops, sorry, jsut read you have done all that