Fewer than half of Wandsworth residents think their police do a good job, according to the latest quarterly Trust and Confidence survey. Across every single one of the six measures tracked, confidence has fallen compared to a year ago.
The data, presented to Wandsworth’s Safer Neighbourhood Board at its meeting last night, covers Q3 of 2025/26 and records a 3-point fall in the “good job” measure to 47%. On the measure that matters most to community policing (whether residents feel police listen to their concerns) the drop was sharper still: down 6 points to 50%.
The full picture across Q3: overall trust in the Met fell 2 points to 76%; satisfaction with how issues are dealt with fell 4 points to 50%; confidence that police can be relied on fell 3 points to 57%; and the sense that police treat everyone fairly fell 2 points to 62%. Every indicator moved in the same direction.
Just three months ago, Wandsworth’s Superintendent Gani Rajan told the same Board that the borough recorded 81% public trust, above the Met average of 74%. The measures are not directly comparable, covering different periods and potentially different methodologies, but the direction of travel in the Q3 data is clear.
Borough-wide crime figures for the 12 months to February 2026 show a mixed picture. Burglary is down 7.5% and robbery down 4.2%. But violence against the person is up 9.7% and sexual offences up 12%. In West Putney specifically, 20 sexual offences were recorded in the three months to February 2026, the second highest of any ward in the borough, behind only Tooting Broadway.
New police chief for Putney
Against that backdrop, Putney has a new face in neighbourhood policing.
Paul James has taken over as Inspector for the Putney sector of Wandsworth’s Neighbourhood Policing Team. He moves into the role from a more senior position: he served as Acting Chief Inspector for Wandsworth, then returned to his substantive Inspector rank and transferred to Putney. The Safer Neighbourhood Board praised him warmly at his departure in December, noting that his experience and knowledge would continue to be of benefit in his new role.
His record in Wandsworth is substantial. He led the live facial recognition operation at Tooting Broadway that resulted in 11 arrests and 14 stops. He oversaw Operation Sceptre, under which police cadets visited shops selling knives to check age verification compliance and found several failures. He has also been involved in the borough’s Safe Spaces work, which runs at weekends in Putney as a volunteer scheme.
He replaces Inspector Steve Burke, who held the Putney Neighbourhood Policing Team lead through a busy period, including the community response to the Olivette Street encampment in August 2025 and the opening of the new Roehampton neighbourhood policing hub the previous April. Burke’s next role was not confirmed in the available documents.
Wandsworth’s officer numbers have also improved: the borough was short by 15 to 17 officers for some time; by December 2025 that had reduced to four vacancies.
Residents who want to raise concerns with the Putney neighbourhood policing team can contact them directly: West Putney at WestPutney@contact.metengage.co.uk and East Putney at EastPutney@contact.metengage.co.uk.
Ward panel meetings are the main route for setting local policing priorities. West Putney’s next panel meets on 30 June 2026 at Granard Primary School, Cortis Road. The Safer Neighbourhood Board itself next meets on 9 June 2026, when Q4 confidence data will come into view. Whether the numbers recover or continue to slide will be the next measure of how Wandsworth’s policing relationship with residents is going.
