At this weeks plenary session at City Hall the Assistant Met Police Commissioner Tim Godwin was asked "can you guarantee that police numbers won’t reduce further?"

The Assistant Commissioner replied:

At the same time the Met are dropping Police Officers, they are also reducing Police Community Support Officers by almost 1,000 – leading to a significant fall in the uniformed policing presence in the capital.

There are also plans afoot to cut skilled and experienced officers from specialist units. Plans are being considered to cut the Met’s jewel in the crown – the Homicide and Serious Crime Command – moving some officers to Operations Trident and Sapphire but also losing another 60 specialist officers.

London Assembly Member Murad Qureshi said: "the Mayor must stop playing politics with Londoner’s safety. This Government’s cuts supported by this Mayor are clearly having a detrimental impact on the Met’s ability to maintain police numbers"

Murad goes on " Specialist units like Operation Trident, the Met’s specialist black-on-black crime unit will also be overloaded with more work and therefore risk losing their focus . This service has an excellent record of achievement which simply cannot be sustained with the scale of cuts proposed"

Ends

Notes

1. Murad Qureshi is a London wide Assembly member.

2. In the Met’s 2011-14 Policing Plan, police numbers in London are set to decline by almost a thousand from the peak level of 33,260 last year down to 31,460 by 2014. The Policing Plan identifies savings of £163m in 2011/12, rising to £322.8m in 2013/4. However, even with these savings, there will be a budget gap for the following years projected to be a massive £92.8m in 2012/13 rising to £174.3m in 2013.

3. Operation Trident details:

Key Responsibilities:

Key Units:

For further information please contact Nikki Salih on 020 7983 4400