Brixton locals have demanded the police and council take action to stop drug users relieving themselves on their doorsteps.
Residents living in the town centre claim antisocial behaviour in the area is the worst it has ever been with users taking drugs outside their homes, dealers selling narcotics on every street corner and XL bullies running around off leads.
Many of the affected streets are just minutes by foot from Brixton Police Station, but locals claim they rarely see any officers around.
They say the situation has grown worse since officers from the police’s town centre team were moved to deal with robberies and violence across a wider area of South London.
According to several residents spoken to by the Local Democracy Reporting Service [LDRS], an officer admitted there were 20 unfilled posts in the Met’s Brixton town centre team at a community meeting in September.
The LDRS asked the Met if this claim was true but it didn’t reply.
The Met did however admit that officers from Brixton’s town centre team had “recently been moved to the borough’s proactive taskforce which will focus on dealing with local issues across the area.”
The Met added that it was “aiming to fill the town centre team posts as soon as possible.”
Lee Arthur, a resident of Brixton for over three decades, said antisocial behaviour in the area was the worst he had ever known. He said: “We’ve got people defecating on our doorsteps. We’ve had it on our front door four times.
“They use the street as a toilet if they want to relieve themselves day or night. It has gotten progressively worse and I have not seen it this bad in the 30 years I have been here.”
Mr Arthur added that he believed the local council, Lambeth, and the community were as responsible as the police for taking action to deal with the problem.
Another local resident, who asked to remain anonymous, said: “It has never been this bad. There’s daily crack use on my doorstep. I’ve had crack users defecating on my doorstep.
“Brixton Station Road is completely lawless. There’s guys openly selling drugs and XL bully dogs not on leads.
“I’ve got my 11 year old daughter. She came back from school and there were three crack users on the doorstep. Do the police and council think that’s acceptable?”
He added that he wanted to see police officers in the area, proper monitoring and maintenance of CCTV and more help from the council for addicts.
Ros Griffiths, a community activist, said the problems in Brixton town centre had reached a tipping point.
She said: “We have drug dealers on every corner in Brixton town centre.The African and Caribbean war memorial was graffitied.
“I’ve seen a lot of drug paraphernalia around. Brixton even smells of urine. It’s not nice.
“The time for talking is over, we need action. But the community needs to be involved in designing the response. It can’t be seen as an afterthought.”
In a statement, the Met told the LDRS it was “aware of concerns around antisocial behaviour in the Brixton town centre area and this is being treated as one of our local priorities.”
It added that “officers will be present in hotspot locations at key times when we know antisocial behaviour is most prevalent.”
In a briefing note from August seen by the LDRS, chief inspector Mark Kent from Lambeth’s Neighbourhood Policing team was more direct. He admitted “that the reduction in visible presence in [Brixton’s] town centre has led to an increase in anti-social behaviour and drug taking.”
Dr. Mahamed Hashi, Lambeth Council’s cabinet member for safer communities, said the council had installed CCTV in the local area and was conductng patrols.
He added: “This is an issue that will not disappear overnight, but we will continue to do everything we can to make sure it is stamped out. There are, however, some issues that can best be tackled by the police.
“The main issues raised at this public meeting were drug dealing and drug taking, both of which are criminal offences which require a police response.
“Although council officers do not have the jurisdiction to enforce criminal law, where necessary we are happy to work closely with the police asserting their powers to tackle anti-social behaviour for the good of the whole community.”
