London Mayor Boris Johnson launches police plan in Hackney

All ears: the Mayor and police commissioner in Dalston. Photograph: Eoin O'Donnell
Fresh from an ill-fated television interview over the weekend, London Mayor Boris Johnson took to the streets of Hackney yesterday to launch his final Police and Crime Plan for the capital.
Accompanied by members of the Dalston Safer Neighbourhood Team (SNT), Mr Johnson and Met Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe talked to shop owners and members of the public on Kingsland Road before meeting stallholders at Ridley Road Market.
However, it wasn’t long before Mr Johnson was asked about his widely reported interview with the BBC’s Eddie Mair, in which he had been questioned vigorously over past controversies.
Despite Mr Mair describing him as “a nasty piece of work”, Mr Johnson said: “He was perfectly within his rights to have a bash at me – in fact it would have been shocking if he hadn’t. If a BBC presenter can’t attack a nasty Tory politician, what is the world coming to?
“I think he’ll get an Oscar, it was an Oscar-winning performance. I think he deserves a Pulitzer.”
On the issue of the policing plan and whether it was a positive thing for London, Mr Johnson said: “The policing plan that we’re launching today is intended to make better use of the entire resources available to us to get police out on the streets.
“Sir Bernard’s ambition is to use common sense policing to keep driving the [crime figures] down.”
Under the plans – which set out neighbourhood policing and crime prevention strategies for the next four years – officer numbers in the borough will be at 685 by 2015 (down from 770 in 2010).
With the central police station on Lower Clapton Road due to close, Hackney will be served by a 24/7 front counter at Stoke Newington Police Station, one non 24-hour front counter in Shoreditch and five additional contact points in civic buildings such as libraries and hospitals.
When the overall plan is implemented – which includes a total of 63 front office closures – it is projected £60m will be saved, which the Met said will be used to balance their budget and protect frontline policing.
“People listened to the case we were making and they understand that it’s better to have police officers on the beat than to have inanimate buildings that can’t arrest anybody or deter crime,” said Mr Johnson.
According to a police statement, the plan “will put more officers on the streets, drive down crime and make policing more efficient by reforming the Met and boosting safer neighbourhood teams”.
Officer numbers in London are set to remain at around 32,000 and the Met has guaranteed that every victim of crime will get a personal visit from the police should they want one.
Crime does not operate in isolation to what is happening right across the community and there are many factors that come into play, when it comes to why people turn to crime, as opposed to living a crime free life in a crime free environment.
Unfortunately for Hackney, there are a lot more factors that push people into committing crime, than opportunities to living a life free of crime.
This impacts on the whole community and for Boris to reduce the issue to numbers of officers on the beat is simplistic foolish and avoiding the real reasons to why our community has many victim of crime and perpetrators.
If you seriously want to stop crime in the community, then you have to take a much wider view of what is crime, who are the perpetrators. How do we deal with them in a positive way and how do we compensate the victims.
We live in a borough which is statistically one of the most impoverished communities in the UK. We have one of the highest levels of deprivation, which is linked to very high levels of neglect in our community. This begs the question how has this come about?
To say that only a small number of people are involved in crime is saying very little and not addressing the issue. Everyone knows the impact that a few people can have on a community, when it comes to these few people’s criminal activities.
Can you imagine people calling for more nurses on the wards in an attempt to tackle health inequalities in the health service. This would not reduce figures of individuals suffering from ill health. Dealing with crime is no different and we need to start addressing what gives rise to people entering crime, in the same way that the health service addresses the issues which lead to people entering hospitals, as opposed to just nursing their acute illness far too late.
All too often we talk about criminals taking up a career in crime as if it is a lifestyle choice. We have to move away from this approach on how we see crime, if we are to begin putting into place policies and action which will offer people a future that does not lead them to crime.
This is not just a policing matter, but a much broader problem that needs to be addressed. It also calls for much greater investment in our community. Throwing money at the problem is not an investment and all too often we have seen this money disappear into the pockets of consultants and useless projects with no outcomes at all.
We need to put in place proper procedures and measures taken by an Independent local body that monitors closely the procurement, delivery and outcomes of future projects. Up until now many of these projects and funding has been criminally squandered.
People have seen this happen and asked the question, “how come these people have been allowed to commit such crimes and no questions are asked let alone criminal proceeding taking up”. Not all criminals wear hoodies or commit their crime on the streets or housing estates in our borough, but their crime which goes unchallenged has a huge impact on those in most need.
We have one of the highest rates of unemployment amongst young people who all too often are told they are not qualified or suitably skilled in the jobs they apply for.
We have young overseas students working in the borough for as little as £2.50 an hour and having to pay Landlords extortionate rents in slum conditions. Young people have lost their grant to continue their studies, which was a relative income to poor families.
The price of fuel has rocketed and some families are faced with the choice of either being cold or eating a limited diet of food. The room tax coming into operation next month, may lead to many people making a choice of losing their home as they are unable to pay this tax. The borough does not have the housing stock to deal with this.
It means that Private Landlords will be waiting to make a killing out of this misery. Only a very tiny number of private landlords are registered on Hackneys landlord forum, which means the 99% of slum landlords will continue to operate without hindrance. Again many people feel that these issues are a crime and yet they will go unchecked.
If we don’t take this broader approach in tackling crime, then all we will do is continue to criminalise a section of our community and not solve the real problems that give rise to crime. This does not take huge amounts of money or resources. It does however mean that we have to put in place structures and processes which will focus our finite resources directly to those who need our help in making a better future for them and our community.
If we do not tackle this, then there are others only to eager to recruit an train sections of our community, into a life of crime, which offers a short quick solution to their misery and neglect and the rest of the community continues to suffer crime. This is much more than just a policing matter.