Camden New Journal - News: Police can’t be on streets 24/7 traders warned

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Camden New Journal - by SARA NEWMAN
Published: 8 November 2007

Police can’t be on streets 24/7 traders warned

Late-night workers fear drug crime

LATE-NIGHT workers met police and Town Hall bosses on Friday to press for more patrols on Camden Town streets.
They say are plagued by drug dealers and addicts.
In the informal setting of a café in Camden Road, traders, workers and residents quizzed Lib Dem councillor Ben Rawlings, the council’s head of community safety Tony Brooks, and police inspector Paul Morris at a meeting the New Journal helped to arrange.
But despite appeals for help from those who fear attacks while working late shifts, there was no guarantee of round-the-clock police patrols.
Instead, businesses were advised to redesign shops and takeaway bars to make them less inviting for drug dealers and addicts. Despite the additional 18 community support officers and 10 police officers announced two weeks ago, traders were told the police still did not have the resources to extend patrols beyond 10pm.
Mr Brooks said: “I don’t think we’ll ever get to a stage where there’s someone there all the time. We just don’t have enough. It’s about getting information from yourself.”
Late-night worker Ali Maybarshem, 20, was stabbed in the neck seven months ago while working at his uncle Mehmet Bazravdar’s kebab shop, First Choice, next to Camden Town Tube station. He said: “If the police had already been there it wouldn’t have happened.”
Residents and traders agreed that it was not alcohol but the crack-cocaine trade that was making their lives a misery.
Camden Road resident and mother-of-six, Rabeya Ahmed, said: “It’s the dealers as well as the users but the users are the ones who are stealing. They need their drug so they don’t care about anyone.”
Caffé Silver manager Vimal Tadvi, 29, said he had regularly to suffer abuse from people who stole from his food bar.
Resident Josie Kelly said drug dealers hung around her front door in Bayham Street. “It’s a very dark street which makes it easy for dealers to congregate round there,” she added.

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