The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, today vowed to put the capital’s communities at the heart of his policing strategy by introducing a second dedicated Police Constable in every London ward by the end of 2017.
Dedicated ward officers, both known to the community and by the community, are the first step in the Mayor’s new approach to re-establish real neighbourhood policing. It means stronger relations between Londoners and their police officers, where local communities are served by dedicated officers they know and trust, and who understand the area and people they police.
The Mayor and the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, today announced that all of London’s 629 wards will have two dedicated ward PCs and a dedicated Police Community Support Officer by the end of next year. More than half of London will benefit by the end of this year, with 260 newly dedicated ward officers in place across all boroughs by Christmas.
This morning, the Mayor joined the Safer Neighbourhood Team in his local Furzedown area, where the work of dedicated ward PC, Lucy Hartshorn, has recently led to a successful drugs raid on a local business.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “As Mayor, the safety and security of all Londoners is my first priority and this starts with real neighbourhood policing.
“Today, I am very pleased to be able to announce the first significant step towards this, with a second dedicated PC in every London ward.
“Our local officers should be known both to the community and by the community. Their local knowledge helps to prevent and detect crime, and they are the local eyes and ears of our security services.
“They are essential to improving trust and confidence in our police and keeping our communities safe.”
The newly dedicated ward officers will be drawn from existing non-dedicated neighbourhood roles, and will be ‘ring-fenced’ from being called away to other duties. At the moment there is just one dedicated PC and one dedicated PCSO in most wards.
Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe said: “I’m delighted that we have agreed with the Mayor that we can start to increase the number of dedicated ward officers in the next few months.
“I have long said that neighbourhood policing, and the strong links it gives us to our communities, is the bedrock upon which all our work is based – that’s why we increased the numbers of officers working in our neighbourhood teams in recent years.
“Today’s announcement of more dedicated ward officers means that those links can be strengthened even further.”
Notes to editors
Approximately 100 of the highest-harm wards currently have two dedicated ward PC’s.
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