Andrew Dismore

At his ‘roadshow’ in Barnet last month, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe confirmed what we all knew: that crime is officially rising in Barnet, year on year: see his PowerPoint slide:

See also my letter about this, with detailed numbers.

This may be to do with the continuing fall in police numbers, where locally and London wide the Met. is even falling short of Special Constables, despite the Mayor’s 2012 pledge to increase their numbers. In Camden the number fell 49% from 268 in May 2012 to only 137 in December 2015; and in Barnet the number fell 28% from 156 in May 2012 to only 112 in December 2015.

Apart from this fall in Specials, compared to May 2010 when the Conservatives came to office:

in Barnet, the current police numbers are:

• 520 warranted officers, which is 14% or 87 fewer
• 48 PCSOs, 72% or 124 fewer

In Camden, the current police numbers are:

• 884 warranted officers, which is 26% or 229 fewer
• 29PCSOs, 76% or 91 fewer

 

The bad news doesn’t end there, I am afraid, either. We continue to suffer from abstractions, where our officers are taken off borough to plug gaps elsewhere, usually central London events: 728 officer shifts across Barnet and Camden every month! 

You may have seen the news reports of Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary’s   report into the Met, which found it in need of improvement. This is the summary. and the full  report.

There is still time to support my petition to save neighbourhood policing and the other emergency services, which please sign if you can, and encourage others to do so too.

I am particularly concerned about their findings on the impact of the shortage of trained detectives (700 to 800) which is in part responsible for poor detection rates for burglary for example; and the broken promises about the ‘new policing model’ which the shortage has derailed. See also my letter to the local papers.

At the Police Committee on 25^th February, in addition to these issues, I also raised the issue of adults with learning difficulties’ experiences of the justice system as victims and as suspects.

I have continued to follow up the issue of children being held overnight in police cells: the youngest last year was only 10 years old.

The   11^th February Police Committee was about policing and road crime. I raised issues about drivers with overseas licences; the poor response from the police to an emergency call reporting an apparently drunk driver; issues about resourcing and road incident statistics; and the lack of connectivity for ANPR in Barnet. I am following these issues up in more detail.

You may have heard about the Alcohol abstinence pilot, re drunk driving and violence offences, which has had a lot of publicity.

I again raised with the Mayor, the policing issues in Hampstead.

Finally, on firearms officers, please see here.