The Metropolitan Police Service last week admitted that in the next two years there will be severe cuts across London in the number of police sergeants working in Safer Neighbourhood Teams.
Following questions from Caroline Pidgeon, a Liberal Democrat member of the Metropolitan Police Authority, budget figures supplied by Tim Godwin, the Acting Commissioner of the Met, revealed that over the course of the next year 100 Sergeants posts are set to be lost from Safer Neighbourhood Teams across the capital. Assistant Commissioner Godwin also admitted to Caroline Pidgeon that by April 2013 a total of 300 sergeants will have been lost from London’s Safer Neighbourhood Teams, cutting in half the number of sergeants across London currently allocated to the neighbourhood policing teams.
Commenting on the reductions in the number of sergeants, Caroline Pidgeon said:
“If these cuts in the number of sergeants go ahead the whole idea of Safer Neighbourhood Teams could be put at risk. The Met claim to be consulting as to how Safer Neighbourhood Teams operate in the future, but in reality they are rushing ahead with their own proposals that could put many of the teams at risk.
“We know that Safer Neighbourhood Teams work and that they provide reassurance to local communities. We shouldn’t jeopardise their success."
You can read local press coverage of this story in the Enfield Independent and the Haringey Independent.
Shepherd's Bush blogger Chris Underwood also covers the implications for Hammersmith and Fulham in an article here.