I wish to take this opportunity to wish all the best to Sgt Trevor Struthers and to PC Gary LeHaine both of whom have been promoted, either in action or in spirit to other things. Sgt Struthers is most likely Inspector Struthers now and will be working for the Internal Investigations team which has an official name that escapes me at the moment. PC Gary LeHaine has been promoted in a manner of speaking to a job that will entail riding motorcycles and being paid to do so. Apparently this is a dream job for certain coppers of whom Gary is one! We are sad to see the two of them go as they have been superb members of the Safer Neighbourhoods team here but we do wish them all the very best!
Our Treasurer, Ruth Edwards, will be collecting any and all donations towards giving them a good send off to their new jobs. We reckon a pair of mirrored shades should serve Gary well (really only a coupla quid down the High Road! Bargain!) whereas Trevor might need a new tie and cuff links to go with the impending pin-striped suits soon to be seen on him!
A well hail to Becky Young, our new PC who replaces Carol Rose (who defected to the Streatham South bunch down on the wrong side of Greyhound Lane) and Yassin Ahmed our newest PCSO member on the team! We're very glad to have them and they've already shown their mettle in the short time they've been with us. Becky has been co-ordinating several projects to not only stamp down on the vehicle crime in the area, but she's ignored received wisdom and identified the actual vehicle crime hotspots and organised accordingly.
With the demise of our St Leonards Wardens team, we we're very glad to find that our newest PCSO, Yassin Islah. He's of Somali origin and already has strong links with the Somali community in the Dip. As per an upcoming podcast with Abdul Ahmed both the Panel and the Police are committed to Safer Neighbourhoods delivering results to the entire Streatham Community and reflecting this in the makeup of the team can only help. It also fulfills a promise made in confidence by Superintendent Tottman to myself before Christmas to recruit representative members of the team and, as well, to boost the numbers in the St Leonards team to address structural issues around crime hotspots being concentrated in St Leonards. Many thanks from myself to Superintendent Tottman for that!
I have also been reliably informed that we have a new PC, Steve Christmas, who will be replacing Gary LeHaine and we will meet Trevor's replacement in the coming days as soon as inspector Hall receives a posting date for him from the Met.. According to reports he (and it's a "he") has been a Homebeat officer in Streatham before, knows the area well and has a strong commitment to community policing. We look forward to meeting he and our new PC Steve as soon as we can!
