Wimbledon remains one of the safest town centres in London, and Merton one of its safer boroughs. Here we outline some of the crime prevention services Love Wimbledon provides to the business community, and the partnerships we co-ordinate locally, that help to manage crime for a safer and more secure Wimbledon.
CCTV Partnership
Tackling crime is a partnership effort with different authorities and stakeholders. We co-ordinate with the Metropolitan Police, Merton Council and CCTV, in conjunction with our retail, hospitality and night-time venues, checking footage, sharing incidents, and reporting any crimes including graffiti and vandalism offences.
TownLink Radio
We are seeing more businesses (both high street and office) sign up to our TownLink Radio scheme. The radio allows for immediate communication between businesses, the police and CCTV, meaning anything suspicious can instantly be monitored and actioned. TownLink Radio plays an important role in preventing or resolving criminal behaviour in Wimbledon, and with Love Wimbledon subsidising the majority of the cost, it is nominal for businesses to join.
“Signing up for TownLink Radio led to an arrest following a theft in our Waitrose Wimbledon store. The response was swift and goods were recovered.”
– Jena, Store Manager, Waitrose
Shared Offender Intelligence
Around 150 businesses use our Littoralis Disc platform to securely share information and images of offenders. This has led to arrests, and enables town centre businesses to proactively ensure potential troublemakers are prevented from entering further venues at the door.
“Littoralis is a great tool to prevent repeat offences and acts as a deterrent. Coupled with TownLink radio it provides front line communication with police and CCTV.”
– Andrew, Security Guard, Uniqlo
Delivering Business Training
We provide business training for relevant safety and security topics including security awareness and counter terrorism training with ACT (Action Counters Terrorism) and SCaN (See Check And Notify), fraud identification, Ask Angela women’s safety best practice and, in 2026 we will be launching new training around Martyn’s Law for large public gatherings, ahead of the Wimbledon Championships. We also arrange regular free bike-marking events with the Police.
Pubwatch / Nighttime Economy Meetings
Love Wimbledon manages Wimbledon’s Pubwatch meetings, which bring together local Police, Police Licensing, CCTV, Safer Merton representatives and our nighttime economy venues including pubs, restaurants, bars and theatres, to provide town centre updates and share collateral on relevant programmes including the management of drug misuse, anti-spiking and any anti-social behaviour that could impact the venues.
Business Support and Reporting
As well as co-ordinating measures to reduce criminal behaviour in Wimbledon, Love Wimbledon is also working to ensure the Town Centre remains a pleasant place to visit, whenever and for whatever purpose you are visiting. Here are a few ways we stay on top of anti-social behaviour:
- Tom Ruffell, Love Wimbledon’s Town Centre Ranger, reports on anti-social behaviour issues like graffiti and fly tipping and works with Merton and Landowner CCTV representatives where appropriate, to check footage. Tom will continue to press the responsible party, whether it’s graffiti, fly-tipping, damaged public realm street furniture or missed waste collections, until the matters are successfully resolved.
- The Love Wimbledon Board, made of a representative selection of businesses from across the Town Centre, receives a quarterly update from the CEO, and regularly discusses how we can retain high levels of safety and security in Wimbledon.
- Craig Hurring, Love Wimbledon CEO, attends the Safer Merton Partnership Tasking Meeting, a borough-wide monthly meeting co-chaired by Merton Council and the Police, which directs resources to priority areas to address any current ASB or crime issues.
- We meet regularly with the Police teams from each Town Centre Ward regarding local issues, and with Merton’s Neighbourhood Wardens for Wimbledon.
We are here to support all our businesses, so if there is anything specific you want to discuss, please contact the team on info@lovewimbledon.org.
Maybe quote from Sgt Pell or one of the Wardens here?
Top Tips to Secure Your Shop and Deter Retail Theft
1. In case of an emergency you should always call 999 or 101 for a non-immediate response. If you ever see anything that you are concerned might be linked to an act of terror, call the Anti-Terrorism Hotline on 0800 789 321.
2. Always greet customers when they walk in. Showing you are actively welcoming shoppers in this way can put off shoplifters.
3. Analyse if there are any regular theft hot spots in your store. Work out what you can do to protect these. Can you improve surveillance in any blind spots? Can you adjust where stock is located so you can see that area from the till?
4. Ensure your CCTV cameras are angled so that you can capture faces. Save your footage and write down camera numbers/dates/timings – are there any patterns?
5. Tag your items.
6. Keep your store tidy. It attracts more customers and sends out a message to potential thieves that you are actively managing your retail space with vigilance.
7. Never put your safety at risk and always try to have more than one member of staff in your shop at any one time.
8. Sign up to the Love Wimbledon TownLink radio scheme (see above).
9. Join the FREE Love Wimbledon Littoralis Disc platform (see above).
10. Get to know the local police and report everything that happens. If it’s not reported, then it doesn’t get logged by the police. It is not true that “the Police won’t do anything”, but they can’t do anything if events are not being reported to them.
