Martin Linton

Labour Party | Battersea

Police march

Column for the South London Press

BATTERSEA has had more than its share of street crime this year, starting with the murder of the estate agent Timothy Robinson in January, followed by a Yardie car-chase that ended with a murdered man on the steps of the borough police headquarters.

It may be that other parts of south London have even higher levels of street crime, but in my constituency many people have been traumatised by these crimes because they are so violent, so unexpected and so threatening.

I asked the Prime Minister to take a lead in the fight against street crime, just as he did on car-crime and burglary – both of which have now come down. I'm glad to say he set up and chaired the first meeting of a new cross-government Action Group.

The Met responded in February with ‘Operation Safer Streets' using covert cameras, ‘Q' cars and decoy officers to attack street crime in the worst-affected inner London boroughs, including Wandsworth. Early signs are that it's working.

David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, has launched a Robbery Reduction Initiative from April 1st to help the Met target street robbers and fast-track them to justice.

All of this will need more police. Fortunately, we are getting them. 1,000 recruits to the Met in the last year. Another 1,500 promised by 2004 when the Met will have more officers than ever before.

In Wandsworth we've had an increase of 28 officers in the last 12 months with 22 recruits due to arrive from Hendon Police College in April and another 22 are due in July.

Unfortunately Brightside, the Wandsworth civic newspaper that is paid for out of council tax, has put out a totally inaccurate claim that Wandsworth police division has “lost 100 officers in the last five years”.

In fact police numbers did fall by nearly 100 in Wandsworth – from 693 to 596 – when the Conservatives were in power nationally, between 1993 and 1997. After 1997 the figures fell by a further 28 but the trend now is well and truly up.