Andrew Dismore

29 June 2013

Dear editor ,

Your story on police numbers repeats  the Mayor’s discredited spin on police numbers. He  keeps changing the date from which he calculates the figures to present his police cuts  in the best light he  thinks he can get away with. He  has manipulated the base figures by taking as the start point the lowest possible date, when the police numbers were at their worst, to suggest there are more, when the opposite is true.

Far from the numbers going up, In 2010, when the Conservative led Government  came to power and Labour left office,  there were 595 warranted officers in Barnet.  If the target for this year is the 520 figure and the projected  target is 565 (not for next year but for 2015, which I believe to be the case), then there will still be significantly fewer police officers at the end of this Government’s term than at the start.

Looking at the SNT numbers, in 2010 there were 63 police officers and 126 PCSOs on SNTs, 189 in total, far more than  the 92 the Mayor now claims.  Only around  20% of officers will be on duty under their new shift pattern, too. And those officers will be spread across the ward clusters.  The named sergeant will be  required to be available to work anywhere in the cluster, not just the ward in question.  Local  knowledge will inevitably be diluted.

This is why the independent UK Statistics Authority were asked to investigate MOPACs figures!

Barnet  Police station is  only going to be open for shorter day time hours, as well, not full time as  seems to have been suggested.

Yours sincerely.

Andrew Dismore