140 Met officers complete neighbourhood policing programme

Around 140 Metropolitan Police officers have completed a two-year neighbourhood policing programme in London. The officers joined the Police Now scheme in July 2024 and celebrated their graduation at a ceremony in Kensington on Friday.

Commander Neerav Patel, the Met’s lead for neighbourhood policing, addressed the graduates. He described their two years as a period of learning and delivering, studying and serving, and developing as leaders while facing frontline policing realities. Commander Patel stated that the officers would return to their teams as substantive officers, ready to be relied upon by the public.

Awards for outstanding achievements

London’s Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime, Kaya Comer-Schwartz, presented awards to officers for their impact in communities. Recognitions were given for problem-solving, innovation, crime reduction, and improving public trust.

PC Eda Demiralay received the Brilliant Community Problem Solving Award for her work addressing drug use and anti-social behaviour at a supported housing complex in Tottenham. Her efforts involved partnership working, securing extra funding, executing warrants, seizing drugs, making an arrest, and obtaining a criminal behaviour order and a closure order for a property. These actions resulted in a significant reduction in local crime, as reported by This Is Local London.

PC William Pearce was awarded the Crime Reduction and Improving Public Trust Award. He was recognised for tackling a series of offences in Lambeth that caused an estimated £50,000 in damage to vehicles. PC Pearce altered officer shift patterns, gathered witness statements, updated residents, and collected CCTV and dashcam footage. His work led to an arrest on multiple charges, and no further offences have been reported in the area since, according to This Is Local London.

PC Julia Robak received the Innovation and Influencing Change Award for developing a neighbourhood activity framework. Her system, created using existing Microsoft 365 tools at minimal cost, is now the mandatory reporting method for neighbourhood teams across Wandsworth. Neighbouring boroughs are considering adopting the framework, as reported by This Is Local London.

PC Sanober Hasan, PC Daniel Robinson, and PC Amy Greener were recognised as runners-up in the award categories.

Julie Anisiobi, programme director at Police Now, stated that the graduation marked an important milestone for the cohort, who had spent two years developing their skills and making a difference on the frontline. Police Now recruits, trains, and develops graduates to become police officers and detectives through its National Graduate Programme.