New figures published by the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) show that Westminster has lost 112 full time warranted officers since March 2010. Accross London there are now 1,130 fewer borough based police officers than there were a year ago.

Local London Assembly member Murad said the figures exposed as "hypocrisy" Boris Johnson’s call for a halt to police cuts.

Following the riots last month the London Mayor said the case for reducing police officer numbers had always been "frail". "I think that this is not a time to think about making substantial cuts in police numbers", he said.

But the figures from the MPA show that, under the Mayor’s own plans, police officer numbers were falling long before the London riots.

In March last year there were 1,631 full time warranted officers in Westminster. This number has fallen to 1,519 as of July 2011. Boris Johnson’s police authority published plans earlier this year to cut 1,800 officers by 2013/14.

Local Labour Assembly member Murad said

Ends

Notes

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Boris Johnson’s second budget in February 2010 proposed cutting 455 police officers in London, saying "over the three years to 2012-13, the number of Police Officers is forecast to decrease by 455" (see

: "The Mayor’s cuts to police in Westminster undermine the fight against crime and should be reversed. He should think again about his own cuts – not just try to blame others. I think the hypocrisy of a Mayor who proposed two years ago to cut 455 police officers now saying he’s against these cuts is clear for all to see."http://legacy.london.gov.uk/gla/budget/docs/1011bud-draft-all.pdf and http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/feb/03/boris-cuts-police-london)

In November 2009, following the previous Mayor of London’s last budget, police numbers reached a peak of 33,404. Under Boris Johnson’s police budgets, the number has now fallen by over 1,000 to 32,131

The MPA/MPS 2011-2014 Policing Plan states that by 2014 numbers will have fallen to 31,460.

On Friday 12 August, Boris Johnson told the BBC, "The case was always pretty frail and it’s been substantially weakened. This is not the time to think about making substantial cuts in police numbers."

Borough police officer numbers

*source MPA

For more information please contact Alison Marcroft on 0207 983 4363

http://www.mpa.gov.uk/statistics/police-numbers/http://www.mpa.gov.uk/downloads/committees/mpa/110331-06-appendix04.pdf