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Save Our Sergeants

Hundreds of sergeants are being forced to reapply for their jobs due to cuts by the Mayor of London. Up to 600 sergeants who run Safer Neighbourhood Teams across London are being forced out of the Metropolitan Police over the next two years.

In February 2011, Boris Johnson announced he was cutting 300 sergeants from London’s 630 safer neighbourhood teams and in June 2011 Metropolitan Police Authority figures revealed that the number of police officers in London is being cut by 1,800 between 2011 to 2013/4. Harrow will lose five sergeants this year, with the same number going next year.

Navin Shah, Assembly Member for Brent and Harrow said: “This is the thin end of the wedge.

“At the recent Harrow Police and Community Consultative Group meeting the presentation from the police made it clear that this is the tip of the iceberg. There will be a 50 per cent cut to the number of sergeants in London and whichever way you look at it, this will have a dramatic effect on the level of crime. I’m not fundamentally opposed to a flexible approach to policing but I am concerned that wards like Kenton currently considered to be quiet and safer could become crime hotspots in the future if flexible policing with reduced number of Sergeants fails. ”

Ken Livingstone said:

“Police officers should be spending their time on the streets catching criminals and making our streets safer, not filling in application forms for their own jobs. These are some of the most experienced officers and rather than backing them, they are being threatened with the sack.

“This is the latest example of how out of touch the Conservative party is.

“We are launching a campaign to save our sergeants. Over the next ten months I’ll be working with every one of Labour’s London Assembly candidates to protect frontline police officers from Tory Boris Johnson’s cuts.”

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26th July 2011