More police on the beat in Havering
Council's Cabinet agrees to fund five new police officers
Havering will have more police officers on the streets after the Council’s Cabinet agreed last night to fund five new posts to help tackle crime in the borough.
This means the Council will invest around £300,000 a year in policing for the next three years, which will give an increased police presence in the community and will see the new officers working alongside existing police officers to tackle anti-social behaviour and target law enforcement.
The new officers will be ring-fenced from Metropolitan Police duties such as policing football matches and local events in order to allow them to concentrate on policing issues that are important to local communities.
They may, however, be used by the Metropolitan Police on high demand days for public order issues or in cases of emergency.
Leader of Havering Council, Councillor Damian White, said:
“Having extra police on the streets can only be a good thing, as it will give us extra resources to tackle anti-social behaviour and further enforce the law.
“It will allow us to prioritise and allocate resources to tackle the issues that need an immediate response and to take the most appropriate action to clamp down on crime in our community.”
The Council is able to pay for more policing under a new scheme called Partnership Plus, which was introduced by the Metropolitan Police in February 2019.
Under the scheme, the Council will be able to explore additional funding with other partners.
Havering now joins the ranks of other London local authorities, where there are currently 338 officers employed by councils as part of the Partnership Plus scheme.
Just seven local authorities have not invested in the scheme.
A decision about the ranks of officers to be employed by the Council and their start date will be made in due course