In 2006 U.S. exports of goods and services to the United Kingdom totalled $92 billion. That’s a lot of things coming from America into our country. Think Coke, Hollywood, cars, and planes. There are two particular US imports I am concerned with at the moment, and they are Halloween and Madonna.

Halloween has its origins in an ancient Celtic festival known as Samhain. Traditionally, the festival was a time used by the ancient pagans to take stock of supplies and slaughter livestock for winter stores. The ancients believed that on October 31, now known as Halloween, the boundary between the alive and the deceased dissolved, and the dead become dangerous for the living by causing problems such as sickness or damaged crops. Unlike now, when its the living who very often cause the dangers.

‘Trick or Treating’ began in the States in the 1950s and it quickly gained in popularity. In the States for the most part it is a well-organised and benign activity welcomed in most neighbourhoods. Most of us would have heard of ‘Trick or Treating’ in the past through movies. A few years ago it spread to England and when we added our own unique take on it were able to turn it from a pleasant festival into a policing Halloween horror story.

Many of you will be dreading Halloween, as in the last few years you may have have gangs of youths turning up on your door steps demanding ‘treats’ with the threat of eggs or stones being thrown at your house if you refused. This year we are taking the policing of Halloween very seriously. I don’t want to stop groups of children walking around the neighbourhood with adult supervision particiapting, this in my opinion is all well-organised and harmless fun. Many of you who have children will be buying sweets in advance of the 31st. What I would like to stop however is the anti-social behaviour that has become commonplace.

Safer Neighbourhood Teams will be working a 4pm till midnight shift on the 31st. Some are even now engaged in organising dispersal zones to prevent older youths congregating in numbers on the night. We will be using a CCTV bus to record and prevent bad behaviour. In the run-up to Halloween my teams will be speaking to shops in order to advise them not to sell eggs and flour to under 18s.

All this is being done to ensure that October 31st is a fun day for those who want to enjoy it responsibly, but for those who don’t we have enough police out and about to ensure your peace isn’t unduly disturbed. If you have any concerns then please call your local Safer Neighbourhood Team.

As I mentioned the other American import that was actually in the news last week was Madonna, and her concert at Wembley Stadium. I was there, not unfortunately as part of the crowd (although my very good sources tell me it was rubbish), but helping to police the crowd after the concert ended. Most people travel to and from Wembley by train arriving at Wembley Park and walking along Olympic Way. It takes a long time to get 80,000 people through the station safely. Because Madonna started her concert 45 minutes late it meant that the best laid plans to get everybody home were frustrated and several thousand people were left stranded when Wembley Park closed its doors after the last train had gone.

The stadium was re-opened for people to get travel advice and spend the night there if they needed to and get a train home at 5am. Most people opted for night buses and Wembley High Street was awash with people waiting at bus stops. The most common comment directed at me personally was ‘if you can’t get us home, how do you expect to organise the Olympics?’ For the record I am the Inspector for the Safer Neighbourhood teams at Wembley. It is a repsonsible job with a diverse remit. Although I do sometimes think of myself as important and I will take responsibility for trying to sort out some of your local issues of crime and disorder can I make this clear. Neither I, or any of my teams are responsible for the 2012 Olympics, and/or making the trains run on time.

Keep safe and keep well.

Neil