Cars on Lacy Road had their windows smashed overnight this week. The street is one of three Thamesfield police flagged as vehicle-crime hotspots in February, but following focused attention, the numbers came down and vehicle crime came off the ward’s priority list six weeks ago. It’s now come back.
The damage lands in a blind spot. No official figures for June will publish until late summer, and the police team’s next review of its priorities by the community is not until September: the attention the streets were getting five months ago has moved elsewhere.
Figures presented at February’s ward panel showed vehicle crime up 72% in the final quarter of 2025, to 74 offences in three months. The ward’s police team made vehicle crime a formal priority and posted warning signs on Lacy Road, Felsham Road and Enterprise Way.
The response worked. Monthly counts fell to 15 in March, 11 in April and 15 in May, well below the winter peak, and by April the ward’s remaining cluster of vehicle offences had moved to Weimar Street, several streets away.
As a result, on 20 May, vehicle crime and burglary came off the priority list at the ward panel, the regular meeting where residents and local officers pick the three issues the police team focuses on. Officers were pointed at street violence, shoplifting and cycle theft instead. The numbers supported the call. This was the system working.
Where Thamesfield’s crime stands now
The wider picture is quietly encouraging. Total recorded crime in Thamesfield fell to 96 offences in May, the ward’s lowest monthly total since September 2024, according to the Met’ropolitan Police’s own figures, and monthly totals have edged down through 2026, from 123 in January.
Violence against the person has fallen every month since it returned to the priority list in March, from a February spike of 32 offences, the highest month in two years of published figures, to 15 in May. Shoplifting is proving stickier, with 20 offences in May, roughly where it has sat all year and slightly up on the same month last year. Cycle theft, the newest priority, recorded two offences in May. The figures have not yet recorded a focused clampdown on e-bikes that we reported earlier this week.
Vehicle crime, at 15 offences, is nonetheless still the ward’s joint second most reported crime category, level with violence and behind only theft. Whether Monday night changes that picture we will have to see: the most recent published ward figures stop at May, and June’s are weeks away.
Why cars, and why these streets? Sergeant Linda Worger told February’s meeting that most vehicle crime is opportunistic. “The thieves didn’t know that a bag was empty until they broke in to find out,” she said. The advice has not changed: leave nothing on display, not even an empty bag.
Ward priorities are reviewed roughly every four months, and the next Thamesfield review is on Wednesday 2 September, 6.30pm at St Mary’s Church on Putney High Street. Residents do not have to wait for it. The whole team reads the shared inbox at Thamesfield@met.police.uk, and crime can be reported at met.police.uk, on 101, or on 999 in an emergency.
why not put a large steel support in centre of bridge from the ground in middle of river ,
would cost peanuts ,job done ,