Caroline's questions to the Mayor on the Metropolitan Police's response times for "lower urgency" 999 calls have shown that Londoners wait on average 3 hours, when the police should respond within 60 minutes – and in some boroughs, the wait is a lot longer.
As Mark Rowley was named as the Metropolitan Police's new Commissioner, Caroline Pidgeon said:
"I wish Mark Rowley well. London needs him to be a successful Commissioner, at a time when confidence in the Met is at a record low and it's just gone into special measures.
"There is no doubt that the scale of the challenge is immense, but the cultural and organisational failings in the Met cannot be solved by a change at the top alone.
Reacting to the Metropolitan Police being placed under special measures, Caroline Pidgeon, Liberal Democrat London Assembly Member and member of the London Assembly Police and Crime Committee said:
Caroline Pidgeon has written to the Deputy Mayor for Policing, asking her to publish the legal advice she receives on the sale of police buildings like Teddington and Notting Hill Police Stations, and to commit to no further police station or front counter closures in London.
Caroline said:
Caroline Pidgeon has written to the Mayor of London, seeking assurances over the use of stop and search in London, and again calling for suspicionless stop and search to be banned.
Caroline said:
It remains my view that suspicionless stop and search should cease to be used. It is a practice which destroys community relations with the police. I have particular concerns over the Deputy Commissioner's record on this issue.
As Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services released its report into the Metropolitan Police's anti-corruption practices, Caroline Pidgeon said:
The report by HMIC into counter-corruption in the Met Police and other issues arising from the Daniel Morgan Independent Panel Report is damning. Urgent and fundamental change is required, particularly internal procedures for managing evidence and issuing warrant cards.
Answers to vital questions about the Met’s wider use of strip search must be provided, says the Liberal Democrat London Assembly Member Caroline Pidgeon.
In a letter to the Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime, Caroline asks for the answers to five key questions.
The London Assembly Liberal Democrat Group has obtained figures showing soaring rates of catalytic converter theft across London, with Barnet and Hillingdon the worst afflicted boroughs.
Group leader Caroline Pidgeon said:
“A crime that hardly existed in 2017 soared in 2019 and remains at worryingly high levels across much of London, with gangs most recently targeting cars in Barnet, Enfield, Ealing and Hillingdon.
Writing at Politics Home, Caroline Pidgeon AM sets out the scale of the challenge for an incoming Metropolitan Police Commissioner.
Caroline says:
Speaking in the London Assembly, Caroline Pidgeon stressed the urgency of rebuilding trust in the police among Black Londoners.
Caroline said:
"Black Londoners are disproportionately impacted by knife crime.
