31 Mar February-March 2026: Security & Resilience Roundup
Hammersmith BID chaired our quarterly, PubWatch, ShopWatch and BuildingWatchmeetings – a chance for those in distinct sectors of the Hammersmith economy to meet with peers alongside representatives from the local Police and Council teams. Attendees were informed of local crime trends and were briefed on the identities and criminal behaviour of individuals currently prolifically offending in Hammersmith. The meetings also provided opportunities for attendees to ask questions of the local authorities in a closed forum, with follow-up promised by the Police and Council CCTV and Licensing teams. Get in touch via your work email to be added to the mailing list for next quarter’s meetings.
The British Retail Consortium published their annual Crime Report, analysing national retail crime trends from 2025. It recorded £583 million of known losses and stated £985 million was spent on retail crime prevention. With around 15% of all retail crime officially reported to Police, more needs to be done to increase this figure; however, there is also an acknowledgment that when Police are unable to attend an incident when called, this can reduce confidence in the process. Read on to see how the Hammersmith Broadway Police are addressing this issue.
Hammersmith BID was pleased to be invited to a Police briefing on local operations successfully targeting retail crime. Throughout Hammersmith and Fulham, Police Safer Neighbourhoods Teams have been working on an operation to reduce shoplifting offences. The aims were to robustly target offenders, disrupt organised crime groups and increase intelligence and sanction detections while identifying and safeguarding vulnerable individuals. The operation resulted in 13 arrests, 130 charges totalling three years of jail time, five Community Behaviour Orders, two civil exclusion notices, and the recovery of around £28,000 worth of goods.
In Hammersmith specifically, the Police Safer Neighbourhoods Team confirmed in a Ward Panel Meeting that retail and high street crime will be their priority for the next quarter. In turn, Hammersmith BID (and Fulham BID) are reminding businesses to “Report It, Support It”, to ensure that Police can continue to help our businesses community. If a crime is not officially reported to Police, they will likely not know it has happened and this may affect their future ability to put enhanced policing resources into our area.
Time-poor BID levy payers can get in touch with the BID to request assistance with reporting crimes. We can send support from Safer Business Network, another crime-tackling initiative funded by Hammersmith BID. Through SBN, we also provide a GDPR-compliant information-sharing Platform, Alert, where you can record incidents and see others’ incident reports, including detailed intelligence on local offenders. Again, get in touch if you are a BID levy payer interested in being added to the Alert platform. Finally, SBN publish regular updates such as their briefing on how to spot counterfeit notes; and provides training (sometimes subsidised by the BID) such as Retail WAVE training.
On 17 March, SBN coordinated a business crime day of action in Hammersmith, to mark NABCP’s Week of Action. Hammersmith BID, SBN, the Police and the Cyber Resilience Centre for London visited multiple businesses across Hammersmith to distribute crime prevention materials and work together to identify prolific offenders. There was also a plain clothes Police deployment on the day to a “hotspot” business; one individual was arrested, remanded in custody to attend court at a later date; and a stop and search was conducted. Finally, the Police issued Community Protection Warnings / Notices, for retail crime-related ASB.
We were delighted to be invited to the relaunch of the Ask For Angela campaign at Wembley Arena. We signed a pledge to support the organisation’s mission, training staff in venues across the UK to discreetly help patrons out of uncomfortable or dangerous situations. We encourage those in the hospitality sector to use the Ask for Angela workbooks when training new staff – these free resources are a practical way to ensure all colleagues are equipped to deal with incidents appropriately. Do also sign the new Ask for Angela pledge.
Hammersmith BID also attended the Women’s Night Safety Summit, where we were updated on the latest research about women’s safety in parks; Publica’s ‘Right to the City’ campaign; using architecture to create inclusive spaces; and how Circles South East are using early intervention with men and boys to prevent violence against women and girls (VAWG); amongst other talks.
The BID Foundation’s Safe & Secure Working Group, which includes Hammersmith BID, met up to discuss Martyn’s Law (enhanced anti-terrorism obligations for certain premises). Organisations were informed of an uptick in practitioners charging for Martyn’s Law courses but were told not to pay for advice: the practicalities of the legislation are still not clear. The Protect UK website remains the best and most up-to-date source of information.
Finally, Hammersmith BID was pleased to have engaged with the community across two security and resilience events in March. We attended a Police and Law Enforcement Team pop up on Saturday 21 March outside Livat, raising awareness on scams and crimes on the high street. We also attended the Council’s day-long awareness session on community resilience in an emergency, alongside the Police, Ambulance and Fire services, amongst others. The BID is delighted to have such strong links with these emergency services, regularly attending their briefings and exercises about borough-wide resilience.