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You raised theft from vehicles as a concern, so here’s a quick local update. Between Wednesday 19th and Thursday 20th August overnight at least SEVEN vehicles were broken into in Thamesfield Ward.
SIX of these were targeted for their logo badges and the valuable sensors housed underneath them, some worth about £2000, at least one other vehicle was targeted by a team of two thieves on e bicycles who break into vehicles if they think that bags have been left inside them. All the vehicles targeted for the sensors were either VW GOLF, Mercedes or BMW.
Please contact your dealerships for advice on making your vehicles safe as unfortunately this crime pattern has been with us for some time and is likely to continue due to the high value of the sensors underneath the badges.
Understandably you will want to know what the police are doing about this and unfortunately the answer is that officers in vehicles covering the second half of SW area ( Wandsworth and Merton ) cover over 30 square miles and typically by the evening are very stretched due to crime escalating as the day progresses, this makes routine patrolling less likely and therefore the chances of apprehending people rarer. In addition to this the thieves on e bikes are using illegal versions capable of motorbike speeds and can only be stopped by other officers on specialist e bikes or motorbikes both to physically be capable of stopping them and the fact that only a very small amount of officers in The Met are both trained to do so and have access to these bikes due to limited resources. These bikes and the officers trained to use them are generally deployed to street robbery hotspots on busier boroughs, hopefully in the future that will change with more money allocated to boroughs.
Us Safer Neighbourhood officers do not replace the officers in vehicles, we are mainly on foot and few in number and though we work very unsociable hours covering a wide variety of shifts, we do not work through the night.
When it comes to identifying the thieves this is usually very difficult as they usually wear balaclavas covering their whole face limiting the value of cctv and they wear gloves limiting forensic opportunities.
I am sorry to be the bearer of this bad news and hope that it at least lets people know the realities of what the police can do currently with the resources available. Lobbying your mp and local councillor may help so that they can liase with police managers to bid for more funding. I wish you all the best.
PC Damian Catherall
 Having personal items stolen from your vehicle is an upsetting experience, and we are determined to find and arrest those who break the law. Check that your vehicle is locked and secure every time you leave it. Thieves often look for easy opportunities to steal from vehicles. They will usually try the handles until they get lucky and find one that has been left unlocked. Keep your keys safe, out of view when at home and away from your front door. If you have a keyless entry vehicle, keep the key well away from the vehicle while at home and turn off wireless signals on your fob when it’s not being used. Consider putting the keys in a screened or signal blocking pouch, such as a Faraday Bag and check that it is still working every few months. Remove all items from view by taking them with you or putting them in the boot out of sight. Thieves will look for any items on display. Things like clothes, documents or an old bag might not seem like valuables, but they could still tempt a thief. Ensure you remove all other clues there might be valuables linked to the car, such as phone chargers or sat-nav mounts. Park your vehicle in a private garage if you can. If you do not have access to one, try to park in a well –lit open space. Try to use public car parks that are part of the police approved Park Mark safer parking scheme. Secure your number plates with tamper resistant screws to avoid them being stolen and used by others. | 
