Rich London wages private war against crime

LONDON - On London's streets neighbours cower behind barred and bolted doors - watched over by CCTV cameras - while former soldiers pound the pavements with guard dogs, ready to respond within minutes of a panic button being pushed.

This is not an inner-city sink estate, however, but wealthy enclaves such as Kensington and Chelsea, where the well-heeled part with £1000 ($2500) a year for private security patrols, such is their fear of crime.

The fear factor has been fuelled by the high-profile case of the city financier John Monckton, who was stabbed and killed by two intruders in his Chelsea home last November.

Near Monckton's home the heiress to a £1 billion fashion company, Nadja Swarovski, 35, who is nine months' pregnant, came face to face with two burglars last week who forced their way into her exclusive flat in Belgravia.

They made off with hundreds of thousands of pounds of jewellery.

Security patrol company boss Paul Barnes said business was booming. "Year on year it's increasing. We also work with some construction firms who want CCTV built into flats, which we monitor."

Around 50 schemes are believed to be operating in London in an industry thought to be worth £80 million a year, with the highest concentration in Kensington and Chelsea.

The guards, often former soldiers, do not have any special powers, although they can make a citizen's arrest. Residents say their presence is enough.

Stephen O'Sullivan, of St John's Wood, said his neighbours banded together to hire private patrols, at £1000 a year, to stem car thefts.

"Every night you would come home to cars with alarms going off. I haven't seen any broken into since [the patrols] started."

Critics point out that the schemes operate in some of the lowest crime rate areas in the country.

In Kensington and Chelsea, for example, in the year to October there were 1518 residential burglaries, from a London total of 63,998.

The area also recorded 3334 crimes of "violence against the person" from a total of 206,812.

Some neighbours believe the patrols are intimidating. One Kensington woman said: "They are big scary guys, and actually quite intimidating. I don't know why they don't just have CCTV. They don't need dogs. It gives me the creeps."

It is not unusual for thieves to target highly paid football stars. This year thieves broke into the home of Chelsea's Frank Lampard and Argentine player Juan Veron was threatened with a machete last year.

Although the patrols work closely with the police, often sharing intelligence, they have come under fire from Metropolitan Police chief Sir Ian Blair, who warned against the "Balkanisation" of policing.

"We do not want private security to become quasi-police," he said.

Sir Ian said he believed the Met's Safer Neighbourhoods Scheme - which puts six dedicated officers on the beat - was tackling the issues of public safety.

- INDEPENDENT