The Red Caps are a team of

street warden A street warden is someone who patrols the streets in order to aid the police at a community level. Examples include the Red Caps of London. Street wardens (sometimes referred to as community wardens) do not have police powers, nor are they the ...

s operating in the

West End of London The West End of London (commonly referred to as the West End) is a district of Central London, west of the City of London and north of the River Thames, in which many of the city's major tourist attractions, shops, businesses, government build ...

, U.K. They patrol Regent Street and

Oxford Street Oxford Street is a major road in the City of Westminster in the West End of London, running from Tottenham Court Road to Marble Arch via Oxford Circus. It is Europe's busiest shopping street, with around half a million daily visitors, and ...

and are 11 in number. The Red Caps were launched on 30 July 2002. They are employed through the New West End Company, which looks after the interests of retail outlets in the ORB (Oxford St, Regent St, Bond St) area. The Red Caps were introduced to combat

street crime Street crime is a loose term for any criminal offense in a public place. The difference between street crime and white-collar crime is that street crime is often violence that occurs in a public area whereas white-collar crime is non-violent crim ...

in partnership with the

Westminster Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster. The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, B ...

Police, though they are a

private company A privately held company (or simply a private company) is a company whose shares and related rights or obligations are not offered for public subscription or publicly negotiated in the respective listed markets, but rather the company's stock is ...

. Their duties range from security, reporting environmental issues to the council, to providing help to tourists and shoppers in the West End. In their early inception, in the days before PCSOs ( police community support officers), the Red Caps were much more heavily involved in reducing crime, but now deterring crime goes hand in hand with

customer service Customer service is the assistance and advice provided by a company to those people who buy or use its products or services. Each industry requires different levels of customer service, but in the end, the idea of a well-performed service is that ...

and enhancing the shopping experience for Regent Street and Oxford street. Red Caps were so named for the colour of their headwear, though in May 2009 a new uniform was introduced which saw Regent Street Red Caps in a

magenta Magenta () is a color that is variously defined as pinkish- purplish- red, reddish-purplish-pink or mauvish-crimson. On color wheels of the RGB (additive) and CMY (subtractive) color models, it is located exactly midway between red and blu ...

shade and Oxford Street in the traditional red.

References

Law enforcement in England and Wales {{Law-enforcement-stub