The council has backtracked after their top community officer said there would be 150 police community support officers (PCSOs) in Southwark by 2025.
At the most recent council assembly (November 22), Cabinet Member for Community Safety Cllr Evelyn Akoto announced the figure after she was asked about the local plan for neighbourhood policing.
She said: “Currently, we have 25 PCSOs locally and by 2024/25, this figure is set to increase to 150.”
However, the police have now shown that the number will be less than half of that.
A Met police spokesperson said: “We do currently have 25 PCSOs, but it will ultimately rise towards 69 PCSOs.”
After we investigated the claim, Cllr Akoto admitted she had received inaccurate information and therefore said the wrong figure by mistake.
The Met’s ‘A New Met for London’ three-year plan states that by next year there will be 500 more PSCOs in London as a whole, with a further 1,100 PSCOs by mid-2025 dependent on funding.
If this figure is reached, this means 1,600 PSCOs will be spread over 32 boroughs – with the level of police coverage decided based on the area’s crime level.
Going by the Met’s plan, this still means PSCOs will rise from one (in some places two) to three per ward. Whilst this is still significant, the number may not be as great as expected.
The issue of community policing is ever-present in Southwark, with concerns over how to tackle the robberies and anti-social behaviour that are sweeping across the borough.
Recently a group of Dulwich parents even started street patrols to increase adult presence in the hours after school when they said children were getting mugged ‘almost daily.’