Detect - Deter - Disrupt
The first thing we did was make some enquiries and found that the Metropolitan police had conducted a multi agency operation in relation to the illegal gambling in 2015 known as Operation Westminster Bridge.
The result of that operation included;
The operation ran for 10 months with an average of 1.4 arrests per week.
The key measure of the operation described in the report was to reduce calls to the location by members of the public.
There seemed to be little appreciation of the bigger picture or for our tourists and vistors.
Further enquiries would be required with boots on the ground to see what was going on which would result in various developments and liaison with the Metropolitan police including writing to the Commissioner of Police Sir Mark Rowley.
We undertook plain clothes and uniformed patrols including maintaining surveillance and disrupting an 8 person illegal gambling team before they were able to scam their first customer and submitting information and crime reports regarding violent incidents.
Our plain clothes volunteers disrupting illegal gambling team, calm heads, no violence, photos of all team players.
Our approach to disrupting the cup and ball scammers is markedly different from the vigilante content creators. We have as part of our role reported several crimes to the Metropolitan police concerning the vigilante content creators.
The Bridge is effectively split in half, Lambeth police responsible for one side and Westminster police the other. Lambeth Council also cover half of the bridge and Westminster City Council the other.
Transport For London (TFL) are also responsible for the Bridge and the red route.
The following video has been edited to reduce the viewing time and includes violent disorder incidents by the vigilante content creators.
We will always do something rather than nothing when necessary as highlighted in the following post to protect users of the Bridge.
Our research is continuing to establish how we can best help improve the situation and make the Broidge a safer and more welcoming place for tourists including providing reassurance of volunteers on the Bridge.
