Bromley Police hosted its first ever online Q&A with residents this week and News Shopper has compiled some key points.

Issues regarding various crimes in Bromley were put to Chief Inspector Craig Knight, who answered questions through Facebook.

He started the new fortnightly online forum to encourage a closer relationship between residents and their police team.

READ MORE: Bromley Police to host Facebook live Q & A’s to engage with residents

The first question to CI Knight was about crime in Petts Wood.

Mr Knight responded by saying two people were arrested on May 7 at 2am after being spotted trying to open car door handles in the area.

One person has been charged and in other Petts Wood news a police officer was "slightly injured" last week after chasing a burglary suspect.

This related to a "small spate of robberies" in Petts Wood and three people have since been charged with burglary.

Many residents in Bromley are concerned about thefts from work vans and CI Knight referred to this.

He described it as an "awful crime" and said police know how much it "impacts massively on families and livelihoods".

He added: "We arrested five people including three for handling stolen goods and recovered tools, scaffolding, ladders and other items which we are investigating. One of the issues we face is that only rarely are items marked with postcodes or identifying marks.

"Keep reporting them and try and ensure tools are property marked so we can get items found back to victims.

"I know it’s easy to say but make life as difficult for offenders as possible. Ideally removing valuable tools from vans and if anyone sees people hanging around sites, vans or industrial areas give us a call or let us know as many details as possible."

CI Knight also said the merging of Bromley, Croydon and Sutton police has changed things for the better.

He assured residents that police respond to 999 calls just as quickly as before because there is still a local team in Bromley.

"We now have an ability to bring together many more officers for police operations," he added.

"In the last week I have led a massive operation with over 200 officers dealing with auto-crime, burglary and drugs supply in Bromley and south east London. This simply would not have been possible had we not been joined up in the new way."

Looking ahead, Bromley Police will be issuing a "number of" drug warrants in the next few weeks.

New burglary initiatives will also be launched in July with details to come soon.

CI Knight also told residents that trusting police officers in Bromley would go a long way.

He said: "All I can ask our community is to trust us to act but give us all the support you can by providing us with information with anything you think will help us.

"Any piece of the crime jigsaw is incredibly useful to us."

The next Bromley Police forum will be on June 4 at 8pm and you can submit questions now by messaging the Facebook page.