27 Oct Safety roundup: October in review and looking ahead
London Resilience Summit at City Hall
Hammersmith BID was delighted to have been invited to City Hall for the 2026 London Resilience Summit, chaired by David Bellamy (Mayor Sadiq Khan’s Chief of Staff). We met peers in the security and resilience space to discuss best practice, putting our heads together to consider London’s preparedness for a range of risks. These varied from tackling AI videos wrongly portraying the city as a dangerous place, to dealing with climate change consequences such as extreme heat and flooding. It was a timely reminder for businesses in our community to check how prepared they are for future emergencies, and a simple self-assessment checklist is a good place to start.
Updates from the Police Safer Neighbourhoods Team (SNT)
Seargeant Andreescu wrote to Hammersmith residents and businesses to inform them of some recent “wins”. For example, on 10 October, officers conducted a plain-clothes deployment in Hammersmith targeting local policing priorities, including shoplifting and the handling of stolen property as part of Operation Zoridon. As a result of the operation, one individual was arrested on suspicion of handling stolen goods and possession of a knife. A few days later, SNT officers made two arrests of offenders wanted on outstanding court warrants. These are just a couple of examples showing the good work done by local police to tackle business crime and other offences in the BID area.
Business Crime Reduction Partnership (BCRP) Forum
The annual BCRP Forum will be held in central Hammersmith on Wednesday 11 November. BID businesses are encouraged to attend to meet peers in the sector, hear about the year’s security projects and success stories, and discuss the topic of how data and tech can help tackle crime. With attendance from Hammersmith BID and Fulham BID businesses, the respective areas’ police teams, H&F Community Safety Team, H&F CCTV, Safer Business Network and ASEL Street Warden service, amongst others, there will be strong representation from the different branches of the BCRP – with plenty of time for Q&As and networking as well as presentations on the day. If you are a BID levy payer and would like to attend, please contact d.biswas-hawkes@hammersmithbid.co.uk to find out more.
Safer Business Action (SaBA) Week meets a week of action to protect shop staff against abuse
As usual, we will be taking part in SaBA week from 9-15 November, with a day of action planned alongside the police and Safer Business Network in the Hammersmith BID area. This will include business visits and resource-sharing. The same week, the National Business Crime Centre (NBCC) will unite the Association of Convenience Stores; Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers; and retail industry charity the Retail Trust, to launch activity across the UK. The campaign will reinforce the message that abuse, violence and intimidation should never be accepted as part of a retail worker’s job and will call for coordinated action against the range of crime and anti-social behaviour facing retail businesses. Find out more in this NBCC news piece.
Free Active Bystander training: TfL x Protection Approaches
Finally, we would like to promote a series of free Active Bystander trainings, delivered by Protection Approaches and funded by TfL. You can sign up via Eventbrite for a range of sessions in November and one in December.