Sadiq Khan has announced he will be using £85m of city hall funding to tackle violent crime.
Last year, the Metropolitan Police used £15m of additional city hall funding to create the new Violent Crime Taskforce. This led to nearly 2,500 arrests and the removal of more than 1,000 dangerous weapons from London’s streets.
This year the commissioner of the Met plans to use the additional funds to give local policing teams access to additional officers to help them crack down on violence and burglary.
Mayor Khan intends to increase his share of council tax by the maximum amount allowed by the Government for the second year running in order to provide the additional funding.
‘These proposals will allow the Met to crack down on violence in communities, building on the Violent Crime Taskforce which has made nearly 2,500 arrests and removed more than 1,000 dangerous weapons from London’s streets,’ he said.
‘This is alongside new investment in the Violence Reduction Unit that will help tackle the root causes of violent crime.’
‘The reduction in budgets and police numbers in recent years combined with increased demands has been a challenge and this extra money will enable us to begin to recruit more officers and staff to provide greater capacity to tackle violence, increase our response to the growing threat of online child sexual exploitation, and deal with other key areas of concern such a burglary,’ said Commissioner Cressida Dick.
‘We will support officers more, including with investment in technology and equipment, to make sure that every officer can be as effective as possible in preventing crime, solving more crime and bringing more offenders to justice.’
The figures published yesterday by the Office for National Statistics show that violent crimes in the 12 months to September 2018 increased by 6.1% compared to 21.8% across the country, while violence with injury rose by 1% in London compared to 9.2% in the rest of England and Wales.
