Andrew Dismore

Dear Editor,

 

Superintendent Corkill has been put  in a difficult position, having to spin the Mayor’s line that there will be more police officers. Compared to now or   2011, when the Met was at its lowest numbers, that is the case. But that  artificial  date was selected by the Mayor to make things look better than they really  are. Senior police officers should not be required  to defend the political decisions of the Mayor to cut the police by 20%.

 

A fairer comparison  is with 2010, when the current Conservative and Liberal Democrat  government  came to power.  In May 2010 when Labour left office, Barnet had 595 officers. It now has 530, that’s 65 fewer. The Mayor’s target for the end of 2015 is 564, so even if that  target is met, there will still be  34 officers fewer than in 2010.

 

If we look at Safer Neighbourhood Teams, in 2010 we had a total of 189 sergeants, Pcs and PCSOs based in  our wards in Barnet, with dedicated teams of 9 -1 sergeant, 2 PCs and 6 PCSOs- per ward.  We now have just 124 ward based officers ( the SNTs have been abolished, with just 1 PC and 1 PCSO per ward) , that’s 65 fewer now than 2010. The 2015 target is 135- that’s still 54 fewer than we had in 2010.

 

No wonder attendance times are not being  met. And so much for the oft repeated promise of the Conservative MP for Hendon at the last election in virtually every leaflet, that we would have  more police officers if he was elected- he’s delivered the exact opposite!

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Andrew Dismore

Labour candidate for Hendon and

London Assembly member for Barnet and Camden