Press Release

Why improved crime-fighting cannot be guaranteed

24 October 2007

The latest crime figures from the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) look encouraging, with a 6.1 per cent decrease in overall crime in the capital.

The challenge now is to ensure that the momentum is maintained and this is by no means guaranteed.

In a press statement, the MPS explained that the cut in crime was achieved “against a backdrop of resource-intensive policing”.
Under the Government’s Comprehensive Spending Review, funding for the Metropolitan Police will be reduced in the forthcoming financial year. The exact size of the funding gap is not yet clear but it will be many millions of pounds.

There is therefore a big question mark hanging over police officer numbers.

There is also financial uncertainty over Community Support Officers (CSOs).

Since their introduction, the Home Office has provided 75 per cent of the funding for CSOs but it has not guaranteed to do this beyond the end of the current financial year.

If the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) has to pick up the financial tab for the whole CSO force there will be some hard decisions to take over how it finds the money.

The Metropolitan Police Federation will fiercely resist any attempt to reduce the number of fully warranted officers in order to make savings to pay for CSOs.

The categories of crime in which there have been big reductions are those which can be dealt with only by warranted officers and are beyond the remit of CSOs.

One other worry we have concerns police pay. The Government is trying to force through a below-inflation pay settlement which mean a pay decrease in real terms for officers. This is in direct contravention of a long standing pay agreement.

As the cost of living in London continues to rise, we fear that Metropolitan officers will be tempted to transfer to other forces in the country, where domestic overheads are much lower.