The porkie pies of Brian Coleman, GLA member for Barnet and Camden exposed

Last week I received a leaflet from the Back Boris campaign. In it there was this piece of "information" (apologies for the poor quality of the copy) :-

I was intrigued to read the claim that Brian Coleman had "worked tirelessly" to drive down crime in Barnet. It occurred to me that this is fantastic news and I should be reporting on this achievement as a responsible blogger. I immediately sent a Freedom of Information request to the Chief of Police in Barnet, to make sure I had the full details to make a proper report on the issue. I asked the following questions :-

I have just received a leaflet from the Conservative Party stating that "Boris Johnson and  Brian Coleman have worked tirelessly to drive down crime in Barnet. I would be interested to know how many meetings you or you predecessor have had with Brian Coleman to discuss crime reduction strategy in Barnet. I would also like to know how many anti crime initiatives have been instigated by Brian Coleman in Barnet since 2008. Please could you provide me with details of these as an FOI response. Please forward this to the appropriate department or furnish me with their details.

Now as regular readers of this blog will know, Barnet Council invariably answers FOI requests way beyond the statuatory time of 20 days, in which they are supposed to answer such requests. Usually there is no reason given for the delay. Even worse, the responses are as obtuse as possible. Information is not revealed, because the completely exact question was framed in a way which allowed a degree of interpretation and Barnet have chosen to interpret it in a way which means they don't give you the information they clearly know you are seeking.

This is the first time I've had reason to send an FOI to Barnet Police. I was wondering how their response would measure up to the quality of service I usually get from Barnet Council?

Well, I sent the request on the 22nd January and received the response today. That is a working week. Barnet Council should take note. And what did it say? Well, here is the full response :-
TICHBORNE Final Reply Borough Commander

So what does this tell me? First and most obviously that Brian Coleman was telling porkies when he stated he'd been "working tirelessly" to drive down crime. As a GLA rep he's actually held no meetings that the Metropolitan Police can find any trace of. In fact the only meeting the Met can find on record is one to discuss licensing issues in his Council ward of Totteridge.

Now if it was just a question of a politician over egging the pudding in the run up to an election, in an attempt to preserve his £52K a year salary, I suppose no one would be too surprised. The trouble is that it is fundamentally more serious an issue than this. By printing such a misleading document, Brian Coleman has inadvertently drawn our attention to his complete lack of interest in engaging with the Metropolitan Police in his area. Why is this important?

Coleman gets paid £52,000 per year by the taxpayer to advise and assist the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson in his role as Mayor. Brian Coleman represents Barnet. Boris Johnson recently abolished the committee that oversees the Police and brought them under his direct control. It is clear that the priorities of Barnet Police will not be brought to the table, because Brian Coleman hasn't discussed them.

Every Borough has different issues. Barnet is a very diverse Borough. We have the largest Jewish population, so one would think that there may be the occasional meeting between our GLA rep and the Police to discuss issues relating to hate crime. We have many major road networks in Barnet (A1,M1, A406, etc) , which also fall under Brian Coleman's remit as the Council cabinet member with responsibility for roads. Barnet is plagued with traffic accidents and injuries. Most of these are caused by speeding vehicles, surely this would warrant the odd discussion with the Police. Then there are issues related to poverty in Barnet, Coleman has the Environment portfolio at Barnet. It is no secret that a bad environment breeds crime. Badly planned estates are hotbeds of crime. Given that Barnet has major redevelopments, and the Mayor has the final say on many of these, surely Coleman should at least canvass the views of the local Police on whether the plans are going to have an impact on crime in the Borough? It is not the job of the Police to tell the Police how to do their job, but they can help set priorities. They control huge budgets, which if spent wisely can bring crime down and if spent badly can send crime soaring.

Let us consider the current "growth" crime in Barnet. This is theft of mobile phones. Barnet has seen a 10% rise in crimes related to mobile phones in the last 12 months. It is becoming a major concern for the police as stolen phones have become a tradable commodity. What has this got to do with Brian Coleman and his policies? Well he is the man who brought in the "pay by phone" scheme. This requires people to stand on the street, talking on their phone, often with wallet and credit card in their hand. Did Brian Coleman consider the impact of his scheme on phone related crime? Well if he did, he didn't discuss it with the Police.

One final note about the FOI response. It is refreshing to see a response which is clearly in line with the spirit of the FOI act. It was on time and answered the question. It also provided additional information, which was clearly related to the inquiry and has forestalled the need for a follow up question. In short, the Metropolitan Police in Barnet have given the council a timely lesson in how to do their job. I suppose that the point Brian Coleman and Barnet Council should learn from this is that if you do your job properly, there is no need to tell porkies, no need to claim credit where none is due and no need to waste everyones time with silly follow up enquiries.

Guest Blog - PC Stewart Satchell - How to deter the Barnet Burglars (and any other Burglars) !

For most people the clocks going back and the sudden arrival of the dark nights provide nothing to celebrate. However, not everyone is sorry to see the arrival of autumn; for the burglar this is a time of opportunity - the opportunity to break into your home.

For many of us making our way to work we do not consider what our house will look like while we are away. To anyone passing your home it will probably look just as it is - empty: and what a tempting prospect this is for the burglar.

After dark, the burglar can walk down a road and not worry that there will be someone at the house to raise the alarm. He just walks up the path, calls at the door and when he gets no response he nips round to the back of the house and later on you will come home to find you have become a crime statistic.

 It is simple to avoid this; a hall light on a timer can make a home look occupied. It is uncanny how one hall light shining out changes the impression of whether or not someone is home. It is also a good idea to leave a radio on while you are out for the evening.   If you are away for an extended period, ask a trusted neighbour to come in every so often to collect post and check that everything is in order.

 Please be on your guard on these dark nights;, the unexpected caller with the implausible story may be checking out your street to see which homes are empty. If you see someone or hear something suspicious call the police on 999! We developed our instincts to keep us safe, so trust yours; they are usually right and never second guess yourself into not phoning the police.

There are other things you can do to dissuade a burglar from choosing your house as his target; don’t leave a spare key in an obvious place outside the house – the burglars know all the favourite hiding places; don’t leave keys near the letter box or on a window sill – it is easy for them to “go fishing” with a special rod poked through the letter box or a broken window. Don’t leave an upstairs window open.

I recently visited a family who had done everything they were told to do by the local Safer Neighbourhoods officers - secure front door, bins not left by the fence, windows shut, but they forgot about their garden shed. The thieves walked into the shed and found a good selection of house-breaking tools at their disposal!  They used a sledge hammer and garden spade to prise open the back door and helped themselves.

That family won’t be making the same mistake again, but it is a shame that they had to learn from bitter experience. Burglars do not like to carry jemmies and lock picks as police have a nasty habit of arresting those they find carrying them. They would rather rely on you to provide the tools, so don’t make it easy for them!

So my message to you all is - check your security and think about what is the easiest way to get into your home. You can always get a crime prevention visit from your local Safer Neighbourhoods Team or you can check out our latest Burglary advice and QR codes for mobile phones at

 Bumblebee - Prevent burglary - Metropolitan Police Service

PC Stewart Satchell, Crime Prevention Officer, Barnet Police