Keeping Merton Safe 

We have successfully campaigned against closures of local police stations and secured the future of both Mitcham and Wimbledon Police staying open. This will mean police officers are based in the communities they serve, spending less time travelling to their assignments and more time and protecting the local community.

We have deployed a new Safer Streets Team to crack down on anti-social behaviour in Merton. The Team is patrolling in every neighbourhood, every week, including on evenings and weekends. As part of their patrols, they are working with the police and council staff to tackle street drinking, untidy gardens, dog fouling, and poorly parked e-bikes, and enforce the law and issue fines. 

We are completing several years of significant investment into Merton’s 24hour CCTV network, improving our infrastructure so we can keep Merton as one of the safest boroughs in London and work with our partners, including the Police, to help tackle violence against women and girls, anti-social behaviour, and fly tipping.  

In 2023-24, Merton achieved the best overall reduction in neighbourhood crime across London. This is in part due to our work with the Police such as Operation Hessian in Mitcham and Pollards Hill to target drug trafficking offences. This operation has resulted in 88 arrests and hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of suspected criminal property being taken off the streets.  

We are committed to working with the police to tackle Violence Against Women and Girls. This includes initiatives such as our innovative Merton Women run clubs which support women to continue running in the darker months, and the establishment of a SafeZone in Wimbledon Town Centre.