The Associated Press
LONDON- Keeping police officers out among residents in urban neighborhoods helps fight terrorism as well as more common kinds of crime, Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton said Tuesday.
Bratton, visiting London for conferences on terror and transit policing, strolled the streets of Camden, north London, with Mayor Ken Livingstone and Sir Ian Blair, commissioner of the city’s Metropolitan Police.
Neighborhood officers have been patrolling the area as part of a community police initiative in London, and officials said the effort has made a major dent in crime.
Bratton and Blair said it could help prevent terrorism too.
“This is the way to defeat not only traditional crime but to deal with terrorism,” the Los Angeles police chief said. “If the police do not have good relationships with the communities ... then the game is all over. You’re always going to be playing catchup.”
The north London street the commanders strolled along was not far from King’s Cross station, where the July 7 suicide attackers are believed to have parted ways before detonating bombs on three Underground trains and a red double-decker bus, killing 52 commuters and themselves.
“National security depends on neighborhood security,” Blair said. “Neighborhood security starts here.”