Caroline Pidgeon, Liberal Democrat London Assembly Member, commenting on the Mayor of London’s appointment of Councillor Lib Peck, the Labour leader of Lambeth Council, as the first head of the Violence Reduction Unit at City Hall, said:
Writing for the OnLondon website, Caroline explains the statistics around deterioriating response times to 999 calls - as well as the way the Mayor has used the statistics to obscure the worrying underlying problems.
At the London Assembly, Caroline raised with the Mayor and Met Commissioner the problems with the time taken for the Met to respond to emergency calls - including calls about incidents in London that were diverted to Hampshire Police!
The Metropolitan Police are regularly redirecting nighttime 999 calls to other police forces, the Mayor of London has admitted in response to questioning by Caroline Pidgeon. Over June, July and August, the Met diverted 2,820 emergency 999 calls to other police forces to handle.
In response to questioning the Mayor has also admitted:
Caroline Pidgeon, Liberal Democrat London Assembly Member, commenting on the Mayor's announcement that he is starting a new Violence Reduction Unit of specialists in health, police and local government to deliver a public health approach to tackling the causes of violent crime, said:
“This initiative is welcome and should have been adopted long ago.
The London Assembly Police and Crime Committee has called on the Mayor and borough councils to urgently work together to provide suitable accommodation suitable for children detained in the capital. Despite the fall in the numbers of children arrested, many are still detained in police cells alongside adult offenders.
Supporting the committee's report, Caroline Pidgeon said:
Caroline got on the campaign trail with Pauline Pearce, the Lib Dem candidate for Mayor of Hackney.
In St John's ward it was good to see a knife amnesty bin, but it's clear we need more of these in safe places in the borough - and we need a new approach to tackling violence.
Caroline and Pauline also went to Hackney Downs and Dalston Kingsland station to campaign for proper step-free access.
