Surge in London street crime

Street robberies in London soared to record levels last month as police went on a full-scale terrorist alert following the US suicide attacks.

Scotland Yard recorded 6,779 street crime offences across the capital in October, compared with 4,271 the previous year, the equivalent of more than 218 robberies each day.

There were 1,090 more muggings in October than the previous month. Crime in total jumped by 14 per cent, the biggest monthly increase so far this year.

Senior officers believe the rise is partly owing to the Met's huge operation to protect possible terrorist targets in London which has meant switching hundreds of officers from the boroughs to high visibility patrols in central London.

Since 11 September up to 1,500 additional police officers have been deployed on the streets to prevent a terrorist outrage here and to reassure the public.

The initiative, codenamed Operation Calm, has led to officers normally engaged in tackling day-to-day crime such as street robbery switching to patrols around sensitive-buildings such as the Houses of Parliament, Downing Street and Canary Wharf.

The Met has also been hit by a financial crisis because of a predicted £14 million budget shortfall which has meant drastic cuts in overtime for officers.

Another key factor is the continuing surge in the number of thefts of mobile phones. They are stolen in more than half of London's robberies. The latest crime figures show increases in street robbery in every London borough.

There were huge rises in outlying boroughs though the number of offences involved was relatively small. The highest rise occurred in Harrow where the number of offences leapt 161 per cent to 107. In Bromley, offences rose 131 per cent to 83, and in Waltham Forest by 112 per cent to 290.

There were also significant rises in inner city boroughs.

In Westminster, where most of the extra high visibility officers are on patrol, street crime is up 58 per cent to 456 offences. This is believed to be because the borough's robbery "hotspots", such as Soho, are away from possible terrorist targets and the extra officers.

In Kensington and Chelsea robberies were up 129 per cent to 206; in Southwark there was a 72 per cent increase to 398; and in Hackney there was a 127 per cent rise to 451. Lambeth, which has the highest robbery figures in the country, recorded a 63 per cent rise to 888 offences.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner-Tim Godwin, who is in charge of territorial policing, said: "These latest figures are a concern though we did anticipate a continuing rise in street crime until some of our long-term initiatives start having an effect.

"There is a significant continuing increase in mobile phone thefts and the impact of 11 September has meant a change of emphasis in the deployment of Met officers.

"The rise is bigger than we anticipated and I think the actions we have had to take in response to 11 September have had an impact, although the trend was already up.

"The key thing for us is that we have to do something about mobile phones and we are working with the Government to encourage the mobile phone industry to come up with the solutions to make them less attractive to street robbers. People must be extremely vigilant about using mobile phones in public."

In September Euan Blair became a victim of a robbery gang when he was mugged as he walked along Finchley Road late at night. The Yard has blamed the month-onmonth increase in robbery on a new generation of young offenders, some no older than 10.