No cuts to neighbourhood policing says Met chief

The head of London’s police force has said no cuts will be made to neighbourhood policing despite financial turmoil.

Transcript

00:00Labour policing is not going to be cut. This is critical to our strategy to protect London,

00:06to build trust and reduce crime. And so people won't see these officers being taken away.

00:11I want to strengthen it as far as I can do because of the effect they make locally.

00:16So we're working still through the end stages of our budget. We've had most of the settlement

00:20news from the Home Office. We've still got some news to come from City Hall. When we've

00:25got all of that and we've done the maths and we've worked it all out, we'll be able to

00:27give the final number. We gave some early indications a few months ago, but I'm not

00:30going to give everyone in common until I've got the final number. But in February, we'll

00:33be really clear with London about the effects of it.

00:35Everyone values the presence of a local police officer who knows and understands a patch,

00:39cares for it and is fighting crime there, and understands what the concerns of local

00:43communities are. There are benefits for policing as well because the relationship with local

00:47community means you get better information, better understanding, you're better at fighting

00:50crime. They're hearing great stories about these officers already, the things they've

00:53been doing in terms of catching local robbers because they recognise the offenders, providing

00:59patrols at key vulnerable moments in the evening when people walking home from the tube station

01:03are concerned. They've been cracking down on vehicle crime in the area with some organised

01:07operations working with specialist crime teams. They're having a big effect. That's harder

01:12when you're not on your patch every day because these officers are, as neighbourhood policing

01:16officers, they're sheriffs. They own their patch. They want to police it. So getting

01:20them based in the patch is really powerful. Many of our police stations are in the right

01:23places but there are some parts of London where we're not close enough and it's fantastic

01:27the council here have worked so constructively with us to provide this facility where there's

01:31now a policing base in this community.

01:34Although cuts to neighbourhood policing are now not expected, the Merts police is in financial

01:40trouble. Towards the end of last year, Sir Mark Rowley announced drastic action was needed

01:47to cover a £450 million budget shortfall facing the Metropolitan Police. This would

01:53include taking 2,300 officers off the streets and dismissing 400 staff elsewhere. He said

02:01selling off police buildings and the use of reserves is no longer possible at a time when

02:07the demand on the force is increasing. Sir Mark said cuts would affect tackling serious

02:13violence and organised crime and added the financial pressures currently being faced

02:21are a cumulative impact of a decade or more.

02:25We're serious about all types of crime. To refute any other message, clearly there's

02:31a stretch in the system. We've got some fantastic crime figures. I mean, for example, injury

02:37violence is going down very significantly this year in London. It's a better picture

02:42than it is on average in the country. It's a much better picture than it is in the other

02:45cities in this country. And there are many areas where Londoners are very, very safe.

02:49There are some areas we're looking to improve. I don't dispute that, but Londoners can feel

02:52safe and they can feel safer as we put officers close to them in communities in facilities

02:58like this to make such a difference.