Met officers and community members from Croydon come together through football

Met officers and community members in Croydon came together at the Crystal Palace FC training ground for an annual football memorial match to honour the late Sergeant Matt Ratana.

Local policing teams have built up a great working relationship with local communities. This was an opportunity to bring together young people, grassroots youth organisations, and community leaders with the Met, helping to demonstrate the progress made in trust and confidence in the police.

Players representing the Croydon community team included representatives from grassroots organisations such as Project 4 Youth Empowerment (P4YE), Finesse Forever and Mentivity, young people from across the borough and community leaders.

Over recent years, officers have been working with partners and organisations in Croydon to tackle serious youth violence and knife crime. For example, officers have worked closely with youth organisation Mainzworld and P4YE to run joint patrols in areas of concern, helping to divert young people away from violence.

As part of A New Met for London, the Met is working closer with communities to deliver a safer London.

PC Rick Flynn, Youth Engagement Officer from Croydon, and one of the organisers of the match, said:

“The annual community cup match is in remembrance of Sergeant Matt Ratana who was a great figure within the community and loved sport.

“In order to make a difference and police Croydon effectively, collaborative working with partners is crucial. Using forums such as weekly community meetings to listen to community concerns and restructuring local policing so that we are tackling the crime that residents care about the most, will help us to deliver on our New Met for London priorities.

“Improving trust and rebuilding confidence is important to us, and we will continue to maintain this by updating the community on our work, and policing issues that may affect them to ensure we are making real impact and change.

“We will also continue to work towards developing innovative ways to keep local residents safe and divert youths from street violence and violent crime.”

Anthony King, from the My Ends Project in Croydon, said:

“We attended the match to not only honour the life of the community officer Sergeant Matt Ratana, but to re-establish the great relationship that the Croydon community has with the Met Police.

“Our relationship with the Met is intentional. We are all committed to seeing a change and breaking down the barriers between the young black community and the police.

“Some of our young people who engage regularly with the Met police played on behalf of Croydon. Initiatives such as this, is a great way of having those meaningful conversations and bringing the communities closer together.”

The game finished with the Croydon team triumphing over the Met with a 7-3 result.