Cllr Festus Akinbusoye is a Westminster City Councillor for Abbey Road and a former Police and Crime Commissioner for Bedfordshire.
You cannot police a growing city of more than nine million people with a shrinking police force.
Yet that is exactly what London is trying to do under Sadiq Khan, London’s Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) and Mayor.
According to Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley, London now has around 333 police officers for every 100,000 residents. That is the lowest level for decades and a sharp decline from more than 410 officers per 100,000 during the 2000s. Compare that with New York, another global city of a similar size, where there are close to 390 officers per 100,000 residents.
The consequences are becoming impossible to ignore.
Shoplifting has more than tripled over the past five years, rising from just over 31,000 offences to more than 102,000. Phone theft has become so common that many Londoners instinctively hide their phones before leaving Tube stations. Too many people no longer expect the police to even turn up, let alone catch the offender. This is not simply the result of a changing criminal landscape. It is the consequence of political choices.
As PCC, the Mayor sets the police budget, appoints and holds the Commissioner to account, and determines the strategic direction of the Metropolitan Police in consultation with the Met Commissioner. I know this too well as a former Police and Crime Commissioner.
After almost a decade under Sadiq Khan, officer numbers have fallen from a recent peak of more than 34,500 to just over 31,000. Londoners are paying more through the policing precept on their council tax while receiving a thinner police service in return.
That is not sustainable, nor is it fair on the officers who remain. Khan’s shrinking Metropolitan Police is placing unsustainable pressure on hardworking officers who are being asked to do more with fewer colleagues. That is bad for morale, bad for retention, and ultimately bad for public safety.
I know London can do better because I have done it before.
As Police and Crime Commissioner for Bedfordshire, I oversaw one of the lowest-funded police forces in England and Wales. We did not accept decline as inevitable. We recruited record numbers of officers, but for me – improved retention was key, otherwise – we were just wasting taxpayers’ money. We invested in nationally recognised technology and delivered the largest reductions in residential burglary anywhere in the country. We more than doubled proactive stop and search while improving legitimacy and public confidence. Overall, crime fell and we became the first police force to be rated outstanding for offender management by His Majesty’s Inspectorate.
The lessons are directly relevant to London, irrespective of scale.
There are three priorities for any Mayor who is serious about restoring public safety.
First, rebuild the Metropolitan Police Force by making it a place where talented officers want to build a career and stay.
Recruitment matters, but retention matters even more. Every experienced officer who leaves takes years of judgement, investigative skill and neighbourhood knowledge with them. Every resignation increases the workload for those who stay. My business experience as an employer also shows that every percentage increase in retention is a direct cost saving to tax payers.
The next Mayor should set a long-term ambition of rebuilding the Metropolitan Police towards 40,000 officers. But simply recruiting more people is not enough. It must become the best force in Britain at retaining well-trained, well-supported and well-deployed officers. That means investing in leadership, modern technology, professional development and frontline support so officers spend more time doing their job. Strong police forces are built by keeping good people, not simply replacing those who leave.
Second, restore borough policing and local accountability.
One of the biggest mistakes made in London was collapsing borough policing into larger command units. We must reverse the decision of the austerity years. Baroness Casey’s report backs this decision. London’s 32 boroughs are different. Westminster is not Waltham Forest. Croydon is not Camden. Brent is not Bromley. They face different crime problems, different communities and different policing challenges. Every borough deserves its own leadership, its own accountability and its own policing priorities. I would restore borough-based command structures, strengthen neighbourhood policing and ensure every borough has visible leadership accountable to local people. Decisions should be made closer to the communities they affect, not across sprawling command structures covering multiple boroughs. Neighbourhood policing is not an optional extra. It is the foundation upon which public confidence is built.
Third, get the Metropolitan Police back to the basics of policing.
Most officers joined the police for one reason: to prevent harm, catch criminals and support victims.
That must once again become the organising principle of the Metropolitan Police. The police should relentlessly pursue repeat offenders, tackle robbery, burglary, violence against women and girls, shoplifting, knife crime and the anti-social behaviour that blights communities.
Technology should free officers to spend more time on the streets. Bureaucracy should be reduced wherever possible. And it should be far more willing to challenge the growing expectation that the police become the service of first resort for problems that properly belong elsewhere.
Every hour an officer spends carrying out work that another agency should be doing is an hour they are not preventing crime or protecting victims.
In conclusion, people invest where they feel safe. Families stay where they feel secure. Businesses grow where the rule of law is respected. Public safety is not an optional extra. It is the foundation of opportunity. London’s police officers have not failed this city. They have been asked to do an increasingly difficult job with fewer colleagues and ever greater demands. They deserve better leadership. London deserves better leadership too. We cannot keep policing a growing city with a shrinking police force. It is time to rebuild the Metropolitan Police Force, restore neighbourhood-based policing, and give Londoners the safe city they deserve.