London's police officer shortage

12.00.00am GMT Mon 27th Oct 2008

Commenting on the news that over half of London's boroughs have missed their recruitment targets for police officers and police community support officers (PCSOs) Dee Doocey, the Liberal Democrats' policing spokesperson, says: "These figures are a worrying revelation and don't bode well for the coming few months in the run up to the Met's budget being finalised. "While London as a whole is only two officers short of its target there are some individual boroughs which are over 20 officers short."

Dee's comments come after Mayor Johnson responded to a question asked (by her Liberal Democrat colleague Caroline Pidgeon) at Mayor's Question Time and released figures showing exactly how many officers and PCSOs are currently working in each borough, compared to the targets for September 08 and March 09. Of London's 32 boroughs 18 have missed the target for police officer numbers for September and 27 boroughs missed their PCSO targets. The worst boroughs for police officers numbers were Westminster, which missed the target by 27 officers, Wandsworth, which is 26 officers short of its target, and Hackney, which is 25 officers short. Dee says: "These figures show the full extent of the recruitment problems facing the Met and even though the Mayor says he's confident the March 2009 targets will be achieved I doubt very much they'll be achieved borough by borough.

"Coupled with the £76million savings the Met will have to make as a result of the Mayor's proposed budget it's clear recruitment's going to be very difficult in the coming year." In response to Dee's further questioning Mayor Johnson said he thought it is "highly unlikely" there would be any cuts to front line policing numbers.