Hi, I’m PC Gary Jones, and I’m the Dedicated Ward Officer for Barking Riverside Ward. I have been a DWO in the area for around 6 years.
Prior to the new ward boundaries being drawn, Barking Riverside Ward and Thames View Wards were combined in one big ward called Thames Ward. I worked on this team along with a Police Officer and a Police Community Support Officer (PCSO). When people had time off or were sent to work events then this would reduce the team even more. We managed to keep on top of the issues we were dealing with, but were left with very little time to do anything proactive. This meant that no matter how busy we felt we were, we’d still have people tell us they never saw us out.
Now Barking Riverside and Thames View have been separated, each ward has two police officers and one PCSO. One of the original police officers has moved on to another role and the old PCSO has retired. This means the area has double the amount of Dedicated Ward Officers than it had before and most of them are new and enthusiastic in their roles.
Our new PCSOs have rejuvenated the interaction the teams have with the community by holding regular ‘Coffee With A Copper’ contact points on both wards and attending community events. At the end of the last school year, the PCSOs organised for the teams to visit every primary and junior school on the wards and met all the children via the assemblies and engaging class Q&A sessions they delivered. They’re planning to do this again in the near future.
In our team now, we have:
- Sgt Matt Everett 513EA (manages both teams)
- Barking Riverside Ward
- PC Gary Jones 1856EA
- PC Saif Ali 2632EA
PCSO - Umaiya Ferdous 7018EA
- Thames View Ward
- PC Dan Rigolle 1551EA
- PC Dexter Cook 2474EA
- PCSO Chelsea Mendham 7019EA
Our priorities are set by our Ward Panel. A Ward Panel is a group of volunteers from the community who are socially minded and have an interest in policing in their area. Meetings are held regularly where our teams report what we have been doing recently and what current problems are present in the area and then the Ward Panel decides what should be prioritised. The Ward Panel is also able to set actions for the team. We also always have the priority of Violence Related Crimes as this is a priority for the entire Metropolitan Police set centrally.
For example at the last Ward Panel meeting some members expressed concern about cars speeding on Bastable Avenue and in response Chelsea from Thames View Ward organised an operation where a member of the public with police used a speed gun to identify cars driving too fast and these offenders are being contacted by the DVLA.
The majority of the work we do is responding to anti-social behaviour such as patrolling places where people regularly use drugs that impacts the lives of residents, neighbour disputes and any issue that requires a long term problem solving approach. To do this we work closely with the Local Authority and Housing Associations using their powers over their tenants when they can be more effective to fix an issue than our criminal powers and in return helping them deal with their problem residents.
Our Ward Panel numbers dropped during Covid as there was a reduction in problems on the ward generally due to people being in lockdown and because a number of members found the technology needed to participate in remote meetings difficult. Now the meetings have restarted we have a good mix of original members and new people who bring different points of view and are also able to represent different areas of the wards at the meetings. Currently we are holding joint meetings that cover issues on both wards but this works well at the moment as many issues overlap the ward boundary and when we need numbers of officers to deal with a problem we all work together as a team.
Any issues or concerns, email us on either:
By PC Gary Jones
Ward Officer for Barking Riverside Ward
