Have Your Say On Boris Johnson's Police & Crime Plan

London's mayor has published his draft police and crime plan, a document that sets out his priorities for the Met across the capital and how he thinks he's going to achieve them. As part of the public consultation process his office for policing and crime - MOPAC - is holding a public meeting in each borough. The roadshow comes to Hackney Town Hall tomorrow (Thursday 24 January). You can register for a place at the meeting here.

One of Johnson plan's big pledges is to increase public confidence in the police by 20% over the next few years. However, eminent criminologists have already told members of the London Assembly that they consider this target unrealistic, "designed to grab headlines" and insufficiently focussed on what their research tells them matters most - building relationships of enduring trust between the public and police service as a whole.

If you read my report for the Guardian on that meeting - or have time to watch the webcast via here (see 17 January) - you'll see that Johnson's critics are concerned about changes to the existing safer neighbourhoods team model, even though the mayor has promised to increase the total number of neighbourhood policing officers on London's streets - 100 more are pledged to Hackney by 2015. There is also some disquiet about selling off police stations and other buildings to help pay for these extra police while at at the same time making large budget cuts.

However, these issues didn't greatly trouble those eminent criminologists. They were more concerned that Johnson's preoccupation with "bobbies on the beat" put the quantity of police before the all-important quality of their ineractions with those they serve - that's us. Bear the point in mind if you get along to the Hackney meeting. 

Comments

[Seo London]

All though I love boris I'm not sure that we should trust him fully. I mean look at him! lol I agree that we need to bring confidence in the police up as they are there to look after us all and make sure criminals are bought to justice, But my other concern is now they are taking £4000 a year off of new recruits wages what level of people are going to apply for the job.