Policing
On Sunday, I was out and about with the ward councillors in Regents’ Park, asking residents about policing and security. People were overwhelmingly willing to sign our petition protesting at the cuts in police numbers being implemented by London Mayor Boris Johnson and the Conservative led coalition Government. Whilst the Mayor protests that he has not cut the police I have used the Freedom of Information Act to obtain the official Metropolitan Police figures which confirm there are fewer police in Camden now than at the last election.In Camden in May 2010, when Labour left office, there were 887 officers and 123 PCSOs. By August 2011, the time of the riots there were just 795 officers and 118 PCSOs, a fall of 92 officers and 5 PCSOs, totalling 97 fewer. The shortfall across the GLA constituency is an appalling 157 in total. The Met. as a whole has had an actual cut of 1,314 police officers. And there are more cuts to come. According to Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC), London is to lose almost 3,000 uniformed officers by 2015 .What makes things worse is that since he was elected in 2008, Barnet and Camden’s current Conservative GLA member has not written to the Met even once, raising any concerns over police numbers. Barnet and Camden residents need an Assembly member who will stand up for them and their local police.
