Camden Policing – The Facts
Camden Policing – Police Stations to close and fewer officers under Mayor Johnson
The Deputy Mayor for Policing Stephen Greenhalgh only gave just one hour of his valuable time to Camden residents to listen to his spin on Boris Johnson’s policing plan, not enough given the huge changes on the way.
You can contribute to the consultation online at http://goo.gl/bc7CN – but beware the questions are pretty loaded to suit the Mayor’s agenda.
You might like to make the following points, all officially published figures.
Police Station closures to the public
The police stations at Hampstead, West Hampstead and Albany Street are to close their doors to the public completely, meaning there will be no police station open to public access in the north and west of the borough at all. Kentish Town will only be open for 40 hours per week.
The only station open round the clock will be Holborn in the far south of the borough, which is not readily accessible to thousands of people who live in the north and west of Camden in particular, but also to many who live in the south too.
The Mayor justifies this on the basis that crime is now reported more by phone, which may well be true, and that a victim of crime can have a face to face meeting with an officer which is welcome. But that cannot be the end of the story for the rape victim or the victim of domestic violence, or of a gang attack, or even someone who wants to hand in a knife or other offensive weapon. And what about someone required to answer bail at a police station – default is going to be far more likely, taking up more police time.
The proposed replacements are police “contact points”. – but these will be just 4 hours per week stalls in supermarkets, coffee shops, post offices, or other public buildings- we don’t know where they will be, and the Mayor has yet to get the owners of these buildings to agree to letting the police use them in this way. We do not believe this is in any way a suitable alternative, for those who wish to discuss or report confidential or embarrassing matters. Apart from crime prevention advice it is not clear what these contact points will be for. Although the draft Policing Plan stated that crime and antisocial behaviour could be reported at the contact points, Mr Greenhalgh seems to have changed his mind – he told the Camden meeting that the contact points were not for crime reporting.
Officer Numbers
The Mayor says there will be more police officers. That is true, compared to now. It is true compared to the date he has picked as his comparator base year: 2011. He chose that year as it was at the time of a police recruitment freeze and numbers had dropped dramatically. His claim of extra officers is based on an end date of 2015. And the extra then, according to him will be just 2 (!) officers.
However, we say a fairer comparison is May 2010, when the Coalition Government came to power and inherited the police service from Labour, with that 2015 date, when the Coalition ends and the next election is due.
For Camden: total police officers in post, May 2010: 884
Projected number of officers for 2015: 751
Net loss of officers 2010 to 2015: 133
Note that this is at the end of the 2015 period, too: it will take 2 years to get there, so for most of the time between now and then, the shortfall will be greater. The current shortfall is 135 officers. (749 officers in post, November 2012, last available figures)
Safer Neighbourhood Teams’ size
I believe everyone agrees that our ward based SNTs have been a great success in deterring crime, providing reassurance, gathering intelligence, and dealing with anti social behaviour. Each Camden SNT had 6 officers in May 2010: 1 sergeant, 2 PCs and 3 PCSOs. (Included in the above numbers). In total the Borough then had 122 officers, sergeants and PCSOs, ring fenced to the ward and dedicated to SNT work.
For Camden: total SNT officers (Sgts, PCs, PCSOs) in post , May 2010: 122
Projected number of officers for 2015: 103
Net loss of SNT officers 2010 to 2015: 17
The current numbers also reflect the substantial subsidy from Camden Council to pay for extra SNT PCs for Camden Town. It is not clear if the Met will continue this arrangement.
Safer Neighbourhood Teams’ duties
Under the Mayor’s plan, each SNT will have just 2 officers actually allocated to the ward – a PC and a PCSO, compared to the 6 as of May 2010. This change is reminiscent of the unsuccessful old days of just one beat officer per ward, before SNTs were introduced by the previous Labour administration. Already, the remainder of the SNT is no longer ring fenced to work only in your ward, but can be deployed to deal with problems elsewhere in the “cluster” to which they are attached, under an Inspector. The SNTs are also being given extra duties, which is not unwelcome but they are not being adequately resourced to do those duties.
These changes look very much like a return to the old pre SNT “sector based” policing model which did not work and was why SNTs were brought in. these new arrangements are SNTs in name only and will lose many of the local benefits that made SNTs so successful.
And finally, is it really right for Mayor Boris Johnson to politicise the police by requiring senior officers to explain and justify his cuts?
