Bobbies Off the Beat

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Local police officers being used for London events

New figures have revealed that Hounslow’s police officers are being routinely ‘abstracted’ from their local beats to plug gaps in London-wide public order operations. 246 officer shifts are being lost from Hounslow’s police force every month according to Metropolitan Police statistics provided to Labour’s London Assembly policing spokesperson Joanne McCartney.

The figures showed that in 2014, Hounslow officers were removed from their local beat for 2955 shifts. In the first nine months of 2015, the latest period for which data is available, 2309 neighbourhood policing shifts were lost to abstractions. Across the capital 111,684 shifts were lost in 2014, more than 2,000 a week.

The Metropolitan police said that the officer shifts were provided by boroughs to “support London wide Public Order operations.” These kind of operations generally include large scale events in other parts of the capital as well as more locally the search for Alice Gross.

The revelation comes after Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) included the Metropolitan Police in a list of 18 England and Wales forced “requiring improvement” after recent inspections. HMIC highlighted that a shortage of trained detectives and basic equipment is undermining their ability to reduce crime and keep people safe as well as raising concerns about the capacity of staff charged with preventing reoffending.

Labour-wide London Assembly Member, Murad Qureshi AM said: “When officers are being removed from Hounslow’s streets 246 times a month it’s incredibly misleading of the Mayor to claim they are local bobbies.

“Londoners want neighbourhood police to be visible in their communities not pulled off the beat to plug gaps in other parts of London.

“The Mayor’s cuts have meant neighbourhood police teams in Hounslow have already lost 77 uniformed officers since 2010. To then further reduce local teams by over 246 officer shifts a month damages the capacity of local policing teams to police their neighbourhoods.

“At the heart of concerns set out in the latest HMIC report is a shortage of both police officers and funding with HMIC finding that the lack of trained detectives and basic equipment is undermining their ability to reduce crime and keep people safe. This won’t be helped by regularly removing officers from boroughs.”

February 24, 2016