Crime Rate in Dulwich

[matthew123]

Someone said earlier that East Dulwich is the jam in the doughnut, and by comparison with places like Coldharbour Lane, Camberwell Green and Peckham High Street, it is a sweeter place to live if crime for you is not water off a duck's back. However crime does exist in East Dulwich. I don't think we should simply write off CCTV working in East Dulwich just because it's failed in Camberwell Green which has other factors at play.

People may consider that CCTV, and other measures, erode civil liberties and freedom of movement, and they'd be right, but that is the price to pay in helping to reduce crime and get convictions.

What is the priority, high tolerance or reducing crime..

[antijen]

Matthew123 you say Camberwell has other factors at play, I dont understand what you mean, what are the factors at play in ed. Doesn't most people have expectations, even though there not met, that the police force have a responsibility for dealing with crime, and if people come together to air there grievances to local council, they also have a responsibility. Camberwell,east dulwich, same council same police force. Its not all water off a ducks back, its reality for most people who experience shit on a daily basis just nipping down to the shops, gives you a diffrent perspective, especially when you've given up on your community police to westminster government sorting your situation, and know you've got to know the people around you, not for what they look like but in order to survive.

Matthew123-

it is a sweeter place to live if crime for you is not water off a duck's back

I really cant understand what this means?

[matthew123]

I lived near Camberwell Green for 3 months and suffered 4 crimes. I even had my front door kicked off it's hinges one Sunday afternoon. It is a hotspot for alcohol and drug abuse which will drive street crime. Walk through Camberwell Green park this afternoon if you don't know what I mean. Have you never paid a visit antijen? These are factors that barely register in East Dulwich.

There is also the Maudsley hospital which deals with all types of mental health problems and it's a fair bet that patients will live more immediately in that area than surrounding areas. There is also quite a proportion of aggressive beggars up near Camberwell Green, again something that does not occur to same level in East Dulwich.

All these factors I believe contribute to the much higher levels of violent crime in Camberwell Green, factors that do not exist in East Dulwich and that is why we do not switch on the radio every few months and hear that another shooting has taken place in SE22.

I like Camberwell but you have to keep your wits about you.

[lenk]

matthew123 Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Someone said earlier that East Dulwich is the jam

> in the doughnut, and by comparison with places

> like Coldharbour Lane, Camberwell Green and

> Peckham High Street, it is a sweeter place to live

> if crime for you is not water off a duck's back.

> However crime does exist in East Dulwich. I don't

> think we should simply write off CCTV working in

> East Dulwich just because it's failed in

> Camberwell Green which has other factors at play.

>

>

> People may consider that CCTV, and other measures,

> erode civil liberties and freedom of movement, and

> they'd be right, but that is the price to pay in

> helping to reduce crime and get convictions.

>

> What is the priority, high tolerance or reducing

> crime..

I think you?re just basically pointing out a basic mathematical concept. If crime happened in regular intervals, let?s say at the rate of one crime a month, on the 1st of the month, that would be unusual.

Instead it follows patterns of irregularity, so, that you might get 5 crimes bunched together, and then nothing for a while. This is much more ?normal? in any system you care to look at ? it happens almost everywhere, in nature, in financial systems, buses arriving, etc

Extrapolate this out to years, dump all the crime data available into it, and you get worried citizens complaining of ?crime waves? or ?it?s getting worse? when in reality they are just observing a bunching ? which is normal.

[Wino]

matthew123 Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Someone said earlier that East Dulwich is the jam

> in the doughnut, and by comparison with places

> like Coldharbour Lane, Camberwell Green and

> Peckham High Street, it is a sweeter place to live

> if crime for you is not water off a duck's back.

> However crime does exist in East Dulwich. I don't

> think we should simply write off CCTV working in

> East Dulwich just because it's failed in

> Camberwell Green which has other factors at play.

>

>

> People may consider that CCTV, and other measures,

> erode civil liberties and freedom of movement, and

> they'd be right, but that is the price to pay in

> helping to reduce crime and get convictions.

>

> What is the priority, high tolerance or reducing

> crime..

I have no stats or facts to back this up and it is only my opinion but I really don't believe CCTV reduces crime.

Yes, I am sure that CCTV has helped to solve many more crimes than when there was no wall to wall coverage but as to actually deterring them?

Case in point, the murder outside MacDonald?s still happened when the cameras (albeit not working) were present.

Drunk thugs, druggies, loonies, generally desperate people really do not seem to care whether they are observed or not when carrying out their crimes, the shock just comes to them when the police track them down and knock on their doors days later. If we get CCTV in ED I think that the random acts will continue, but maybe a few more will be caught. Not really any compensation for the injured, traumatised or worse.

I have lived in ED for 12 years now and I still find it be one of the "quieter" places to live in this big dirty city of ours.

[antijen]

Matthew123 I lived in camberwell for years, moving to ed recently and what you may have not felt there regardless of crime is a feeling of community. These people you talk about hanging around the green, were often the only ones to get involved or help people when shit kicked off, and most of them really friendly. They are part of the community and also have rights along with patients who have psychiatric problems, maybe the problems lie with judgmental people who insist on isolating these people instead of accepting diffrences.

[Louisa]

Brendan I am with you on this one. If we all just accept things as being a given there is nowhere to go from that point. I do not align myself with the Dail Mail scaremongering types who like to make a mountain out of a molehill, but I would like to think that people in our community were prepared to stand up and be counted if they believed for whatever reason crime rates had gone, whether that be as a result of fear of crime because a neighbour has been mugged or burlged recently, or because they themselves have been a victim of crime. I do not personally see any major increase in crime locally, in fact I would say that this area has never been safer, but nowhere is recession proof, and naturally crime rates do increase at a time of economic turmoil and high unemployment. I am no more fearful of crime after reading this thread, but I certainly keep an eye open and am always on my guard as anyone should be who lives in a major city.

Louisa.

[????]

The British Crime Survey, published recently does show an increase in street burgalry (a pc term for mugging) and house breaking.

I'm with Brendan and Loiusa...I'd also like to see a far firmer response from the courts rather than the 'getting their parents to tick them off and then send them go-karting' approach advocated by the Guradian...both sets of behaviour make all of our lives poorer and for the victims at the extreme these can ruin their lives. Their behaviour is also an insult to the millions of people who also live in similar disadvanraged, low income, low opportunity circumstances without resorting to violence and thuggery - and who are also far more likely to bear the brunt of crime than most of us.

[Huguenot]

Stocks?

I'm being flippant, but they were very effective...

[matthew123]

Actually antijen I did feel the community spirit in Camberwell, and as I said earlier I do like the area. I found people in Camberwell were very approachable and friendly. That was a great summer in Camberwell, but I cannot let it mask my opinion - rightly or wrongly that is what I think.

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

And they smell beautiful, Hugenot.

[Morag]

'Gangs posses are only disfunctional people' who are enslaved to the very drugs they are selling' They dont want any other life they are lesser creatures than most' They cannot understand that posses were men that helped to reinforce the law' Cool should be changed to fool' Dulwich police station should be reopened' what are we paying tax and rates for?

[louisiana]

Ah, more of those are-they-quotes-probably-not. Morag, dear heart, there are some fabulous books on punctuation. Try the full stop, for starters. It is the punctuation mark that just keeps on giving. B)

[Morag]

Thank you mistress Louis.

[Scylla100]

Just to add my two cents, I got my bag nicked at Cafe Nero the other day. The police were very nice about it but there was no way any investigation was going to happen.

The policewoman I reported it to she said the thieves target places people feel relaxed and I had just returned from a trip abroad where I was really careful with my stuff. I'd gone out for a coffee with a friend and thought "I'm home in East Dulwich I can relax now." Ah hah, lesson learned. I need to be as careful here as when I'm far away from home.

There was a CCTV camera on but who knows if the thieves were caught on camera or what. I asked if the coffee shop could check their cameras to see if the bag snatching had been caught on film but nothing ever came of it, never heard back so I guess that's a "no."

Dang, I really liked that bag!

Scylla

[ianr]

Scylla100 Wrote:

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> There was a CCTV camera on but who knows if the

> thieves were caught on camera or what. I asked if

> the coffee shop could check their cameras to see

> if the bag snatching had been caught on film but

> nothing ever came of it, never heard back so I

> guess that's a "no."

I doubt they'd see it as their job to go through the recording for you. But is there no way it can be examined, either by yourself in their presence (don't you have a DPA right to a copy of images of (possibly just) yourself held by them?) or by the police? Are the police aware that there's possibly a recording? If they are, and know the time of the incident, it seems to me it could be a highly profitable use of their time to obtain it and check. I think I'd be very disgruntled if they didn't.

[Scylla100]

I emailed the information in the crime report and told the nice police lady over the phone (Hey, you can email in to report a crime now, how 21st century). I called Cafe Nero a couple of times and they promised to look and call me back if they found anything.

I think people are just too busy to bother. I would think, if you have someone committing a crime on camera it would make a nice little prosecution case. But I guess not.

If anybody has any inside knowledge on this kind of thing I'd love to be enlightened.

Scylla

[Cassius]

Does pose the question of what is the point of having the cameras at all if they are not used when a crime is commited.

[jonnyhitek]

one thing that no one has commented about is the fact that we are in an economic recession - which to me could be a reason for an increase in crime. poeple losing jobs etc. desparate for cash - just a thought.

(?)