Ken Livingstone today launched a new campaign against rising violent crime and police cuts in London, pledging to: 1. Reverse Boris Johnson's cuts to 1,700 police officers; 2. Reinstate sergeants to all 600 Safer Neighbourhood Teams, more of which will be beefed up to a minimum of nine officers, reversing the Tory Mayor's cut to 300 sergeants in 2011. According to the Metropolitan Police...

Home Office data published today shows police numbers are falling sharply in London. According to the Home Office there were 31,657 Metropolitan police officers in September 2011, a fall of 1,243 from September 2010. This represents a fall 3.8% over the year. The decline in police numbers under Boris Johnson is accelerating, with 784 fewer police in the latest 6 months alone. And, in separate, sli...

Today Boris Johnson has claimed that he has protected "police officers from cuts". This is completely untrue and at odds with the Metropolitan Police's own figures. The latest figures from the police have confirmed that Boris Johnson has cut 1,782 police officers in the last 18 months. * In March 2010 there were from 33,260 police officers in London; * By October 2011 there were just 31,478 p...

Official Metropolitan police figures contradict Boris Johnson's wild claims on police officer numbers. New research has discovered Boris Johnson's re-election website has falsely claimed there are 722 more police officers operating in London than the latest official figures reported by the Metropolitan Police. The Tory mayor's official campaign website, BackBoris2012.com is currentl...

The Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) has been both rewarding and infuriating; a chance for a mix of politicians, independents and magistrates to question the Met in public, but still astonishingly impenetrable when it choosed to be. There was genuine dialogue - sometimes tetchy and difficult, but the Commissioner had to respond directly. This contrasts with the new arrangements for policing in ...

David Hanson MP, Labour's Shadow Policing Minister, in response to the Metropolitan Police Authority being replaced by the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPC) from today, said:

London's mayor is now responsible for the Metropolitan Police's priorities and performance, as part of government plans for elected commissioners.

Police numbers in London have fallen whilst incidences of some of the most serious crimes have increased, latest figures show. According to figures from the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA), in October 2011 there were 1,370 fewer full time police officers working in London borough commands compared to March 2010. On March 31st 2010 there were 20,599 police officers working in the 32 London boro...

With Gary Dobson and David Norris starting life sentences, the mainstream media, Internet, and political elites are in overdrive, congratulating the Metropolitan police on a job well done; proclaiming we should rejoice, the Metropolitan Police is no longer the racist institution it once was.  After the life sentences, and 15 and 14 year tariffs were handed down by Justice Treacy, Twitter was ...

As a former head of the US Secret Service, Ronald Noble knows only too well how terrorism, drug-smuggling and people-trafficking cross borders which individual police forces cannot. He is now Secretary General of Interpol, and a specialist team from the organisation he has spent 11 years rebuilding will next summer help the Metropolitan Police combat those crimes and others, during the huge securi...