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Mayor welcomes new Met trainees as critics question civilian job losses

February 23, 2012 - Martin Hoscik@MayorWatch

The Mayor says police numbers will be higher by the end of his first term. Photo: MayorWatch
Boris Johnson visited the Met Police’s training centre in Richmond last night where he met some of the 140 recruits currently in training.

Many of the trainees are former Police Community Support Officers (PSCOs) who are converting to fully warranted police officers.

The level of police numbers has long been the subject of political argument at City Hall.

The Mayor insists there will be more officers at the end of the current Mayoral term than when he took office in 2008.

Labour Assembly Members say he initially benefitted from additional funding left behind by former Mayor Ken Livingstone and has since presided over a fall in officer numbers.

Figures provided by the London Assembly’s secretariat show that officer levels have fallen during the current term, but are set to rise in this year.

Speaking after his visit the Mayor said: “By the end of my mayoralty we will have 32,320 full-time warranted police officers – significantly more than I inherited, which is great news for the on going fight against crime.”

However the Mayor has been accused of bolstering police numbers at the expense of back office civilian jobs, resulting in redundancy payments totalling £60m.

London Assembly Member Jenny Jones says more officers will carry out back office jobs meaning Londoners will see no benefit from the higher numbers.

Jones claimed the Mayor “has decided that the only way he can make the government cuts and keep the police numbers high, is by sacking civilian staff. The result is that we have more police sitting behind desks.”

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