00:00Hello, yes, the Metropolitan Police has been planning to close half the front desks at its stations in order to save money.
00:09It was reported that the move would reduce the number of counters across London from 37 to 19
00:16and thereby cutting down the number of places where people could walk in and actually speak to an officer face-to-face
00:24at their local police station across the capital.
00:27It was also noted that the plan would break a previous pledge to have a counter staffed 24-7 in each of the capital's 32 boroughs.
00:37A Met Police spokesperson has stated that the consultation was underway, but no changes would be made until later in the year.
00:46They added that given the Met's budget, shortfall and shrinking size, it was no longer sustainable to keep all front counters open.
00:56The Met Police Chief Sir Mark Rowley had taken the unusual step the previous month of warning Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer
01:06that police forces would face stark choices about which crimes to investigate if their budgets were cut.
01:15Now, Labour has made manifesto commitments to half-violence against women and girls, as well as knife crime as well, an issue that's rife in London.
01:26At the same time, it had been reported that the Met had been struggling with a widespread loss of trust in its officers,
01:34particularly among women following the murder of Sarah Everard in Clapham by a serving police officer at the time.
01:43One key commitment that the Met Police has recently made in a strategy has been to ensure that at least one 24-7 front counter
01:52in each of London's 32 boroughs has been available to make it easier to report crime.
01:59A Met Police spokesman has defended plans to cut hours as well, saying that this is why they had taken the tough decision
02:07to pursue closures and a reduction in hours, which they claimed would allow them to focus resources more effectively
02:15on tackling crime and putting more officers into neighbourhoods across the capital.
02:22What I would say is it would really be evidence-based. So what's the stats? Are people going into centres? Are they going online?
02:29Do they feel safer to respond online? And what sort of responses the public are getting, basically?
02:36So I'd be led by them. I think they need to have their say.
02:39Yeah, I think it's really important that people get an opportunity to talk to the police face-to-face.
02:44You know, if they've got a problem, the police should be the focus of the community, in many ways, part of the community.
02:50And if we're closing down police stations and closing down reception areas and police stations,
02:55it just takes the police further away from the community.
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