Does anyone know why @SgtBiddle doesn’t post on here anymore? Has he been moved? Too busy fighting crime? Decision made on high against posting on forums? Or avoiding local ructions by posting on one local forum but not others (and too busy to post on them all)?
Sadly:
It’s sad that their official policy means they reach only their 1700 followers on Twitter.
By posting on SE23.life they would reach thousands of web visitors every day, 4200 Twitter followers and 3000 Facebook members.
The revival of the mugging thread reminded me we no longer hear from Sgt Biddle or anyone from his team. I remember the above reason being given. But I have seen on a couple of visits over to SE26.life that MPS Sydenham is a regular contributor.
Does anyone know if rules on social media are different between MPS teams? They all fall under MPS for Lewisham so thought it would be the same rules for all. Sgt Biddle’s contributions were one of the best things on this site.
It’s sad isn’t it. I miss @SgtBiddle’s updates, and this forum gave them huge reach to the local community (especially via our popular social channels, with several thousand followers apiece).
But unfortunately I suspect there may have been shenanigans at play here.
Why so suspicious? Well - in the latter stages of the Forest Hill Mural project, I found out that a local leftwing activist had phoned our contact at Network Rail with the intent of smearing me personally on political grounds. She had specifically warned Network Rail from associating with me and the SE23.life brand. I’m glad he revealed this to me. If she’d succeeded in her smears, it may have killed the mural project altogether, and I may never have known the reason.
A lady (likely the same one) also conducted a long-term campaign to smear me to dozens of local businesses and community figures publicly via Twitter at the start of 2017. I have evidence that it is still going on via messages on Twitter as recently as Christmas 2018.
To this lady (who I know reads this forum): I’d like you to know that my forums and I present no threat to you or your political bedfellows. This is a non-partisan forum, and it will never be a public platform for rightwing or leftwing political campaigning. Yes - we will continue to have political debates in our opt-in General Politics section, and views may be expressed that you disagree with. But these conversations are no threat to you or the community.
The Dot Life forums will not be stopped by foul play, and every attempt to smear me and hurt my community endeavours will only make me more dedicated to their success.
While I can’t vouch for the claims of personal smearing, it seems odd to me whatever your views that they would dissuade anyone from posting here to reach the local community. My experience is that all outlooks are welcomed here and the forum is all the Stronger for that.
For what it’s worth, @SgtBiddle was posting to a thread on the other se23 site for a while, and stopped on 11/4/2018 just like here… same day.
So I doubt it’s personal, probably a policy change or cuts. There is the MPSForestHill Twitter account too, but that’s seldom updated as well.
Actually, the owner of the old se23 forum was impersonating SgtBiddle, copying the content of his updates from SE23.life
Which may clarify why the updates stopped over there when they stopped here
Bumped into Sgt Biddle a couple months ago and he mentioned that he doesn’t have the time anymore and was more pro active on the beat instead. He’s a top bloke.
I bumped into him patrolling the area a few weeks ago and he said hello. I felt like I was meeting a real local celebrity - made my day!
I’d imagine it is because he’s too busy doing police work.
I was shocked at how much form-filling and admin a police officer has to do these days - it must be an absolute nightmare tor them when they want to be out there proactively preventing and dealing with crimes.
I can relate to that, my husband is a police officer and he has barely enough energy to slump on the sofa each night and nod off just as I awaited his return to catch up on Netflix 
I can see the challenge. It takes time to distribute information through multiple media channels. I suppose we should be grateful he and others still use Twitter. I’ll make a point of thanking him when I see him next.
Wow! I didn’t see that before!
That explains why the @SgtBiddle never replied on the other forum - because it wasn’t him (and impersonating a police officer is a crime etc…). I feel bad for the people that possibly felt they were ignored over on the other site as a result, though to be honest there wasn’t much constructive comment anyway.
It seems like a privilege that he was able to engage here, for a short time anyway.
Do you feel this had an impact on his decision not to post here anymore?
Quite possibly, yes, given what happened with Network Rail. The activist in question is determined and willing to go to great lengths to disrupt this forum. If you want to discuss this further, let’s do it via PM.
Hi - my friend just called and said 3 men have just got into the common parts of their flats. They were banging on doors.
Have tried {Police bit told no crime has been committed. Is there a contact number for Sgt Biddle? This is on Westbourne Drive
Your friend should call 999.
She did, but was told unless any criminal damage had been caused there was nothing they could do.
As she was on her own she couldn’t go and check - she also didn’t know if they were still on the property
@LEON - I’d recommend dialing 101. I’ve used this before and local police responded in person:
I dialled 101 & got a similar response, which I can understand to a certain extent. However, when you’re witnessing something unfold in realtime and know it is a rational person talking to you it is quite unnerving.
Notwithstanding, should anyone be in a similar position ring both 999 & 101. Both calls were logged so the operator could see an issue had been raised
There was a police man or community support officer knocking doors on Codrington Hill today. Don’t know if it was in relation to an incident or just doing the rounds, if that’s a thing.
There were 3 people from the Macmillan charity knocking on doors today getting people to sign up. Could it be them?
I know someone who had a motorbike stolen from Codrington Hill yesterday morning - so it’s probably that