Launched in November 2021, the Knightsbridge Partnership Street Team’s daily uniformed patrols have been making a real difference to the security and safety of the Knightsbridge and Brompton Road areas, supporting businesses and helping members of the public.
The Street Team have begun a series of regular joint patrols with Neighbourhood Police Officers and Wardens from the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea to maximise the security impact and make the district even safer. The recent patrols have focused on aggressive begging outside the Knightsbridge underground station.
In partnership with Cadogan, the street team patrols have extended to cover a seven day a week service, providing a robust level of support across the week. The day-to day uniformed patrols have been extremely busy since their introduction in November, responding in the last quarter to 142 calls from member businesses and assisting 6,436 visitors to the area with advice and directions.
Each day they visit as many members as possible to provide reassurance and identify any issues that the BID can assist in solving. They also completed 10,358 reassurance visits.
They are highly proactive in addressing organised teams of beggars and deterring active offenders in the area including addressing 553 such incidents. The 1282 incidents they have addressed to date include multiple detentions of offenders, a number of whom have been charged with criminal offences, including theft, shoplifting, assaults, pickpocketing and public order offences.
In many cases stolen property has been recovered and returned to members and a total of 7-cases have resulted in the commencement of private criminal prosecutions where police have been unable to attend.
As your teams grow and develop, please let all of your staff have the Street Team’s contact number so they can contact them if the need arises – 07496 222860.