Support officers boost local police numbers

3.18.36pm GMT Mon 28th Jul 2003

Police

There are positive trends in local police recruitment, which have been welcomed by local MP Vincent Cable, Chair of the All Party Police Group.

The new figures will be reported to the Police Community Consultative Group at its meeting on Tuesday 29 July as part of the Metropolitan Police's commitment to ward (i.e. beat) policing.

The borough of Richmond will be allocated 16 new police community support officers over the next year (on top of the regular police numbers of 275.

Kingston gets another 13 PCSO's (on top of 264 police officers); and Hounslow gets 30 PCSO's plus 14 police officers on top of its current 470.

Vincent Cable said: "when PCSO's were introduced I had my doubts about their value which was shared by the Police Federation and other police bodies. But the early reports from central London indicate that the public is reassured by a uniformed police presence even if their powers are less than for mainstream officers."

"So I welcome the reinforcement we are getting locally. If the experiment is successful then the council can 'buy' additional PCSO's beyond those allocated by the Met".

Police numbers are set to rise sharply in coming years from 25,000 in the Met two years ago to 28477 now, 30,000 shortly and 35,000 in a few years time.

Vincent Cable warned however that: "while the overall position is

now much better than a few years ago, the formula for allocating police within London remains unfair and unsatisfactory for law abiding boroughs like Richmond and Kingston."

"I see that Hounslow now has almost twice the number of officers as Richmond and will get 44 more this year including 14 regular officers as well as 30 PCSO's".