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Shaun Bailey: Take lessons from New York and get our police officers back on the beat

On the case: in New York, extra CCTV and closer liaison with the public has led to a drastic cut in levels of crime: Getty Images
On the case: in New York, extra CCTV and closer liaison with the public has led to a drastic cut in levels of crime: Getty Images

Our great city is witnessing some of the highest rates of violent crime for many years. Knife crime is up by more than 50 per cent since 2016 and the murder rate was recently worse than that of New York City. Quite rightly, many Londoners feel less secure than they once did.

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has over the past two years shown a distinct lack of leadership when it comes to tackling crime. He instead shamelessly blames the Government for the rise in crime and takes no responsibility for this disturbing increase.

It is true that both the current Mayor and his predecessor have had to make savings but the Met Police still remains the best- funded police service in the country on a like-for-like basis, with the equivalent of £337 per Londoner being allocated to City Hall for the protection of the capital.

This compares very favourably to Merseyside, which spends £222 per capita, and the West Midlands, which only has funding equivalent to £186 per person.

This is why we need to get out of the mindset that tackling crime is as simple as asking the Government to hand out more funding. To put more police on the streets the current Mayor should look to get his own house in order.

Shaun Bailey is applying to be the Conservative candidate for the Mayor of London race (Lucy Young)
Shaun Bailey is applying to be the Conservative candidate for the Mayor of London race (Lucy Young)

Indeed, it is the duty of the Mayor of London to make sure it is criminals that feel under pressure, not communities. To achieve this, City Hall needs to explore and adopt new ideas. In tackling rising crime I think there is more that the Metropolitan Police could do to innovate and improve the service it offers to Londoners.

For example, we could better capitalise on technological advances to improve police efficiency and free up police time. Taking police officers out from behind desks and onto the streets through the greater use of tech is something that the Met needs to explore seriously.

There are some exceptional examples from around the world that our global city can learn lessons from.

In New York the police department’s Domain Awareness System (DAS) collects and analyses data from various points, including 9,000 closed-circuit TV cameras, 500 licence plate-readers and calls from ordinary citizens. The DAS system captures this information and uses artificial intelligence (AI) technology to analyse this data and help catch criminals. It has been instrumental in drastically lowering New York’s crime rate in recent years.

"It is the duty of the Mayor of London to make sure that it is criminals that feel under pressure, not communities"

Since DAS was introduced it has saved the NYPD at least $50 million (£37.5million) per year by taking police officers away from administrative duties and replacing them with AI systems. Tech like this would undoubtedly benefit the Metropolitan Police as well.

As the NYPD is slightly larger than the Met when measured by overall budget, this would equate to £30 million of savings in the Met — the equivalent of freeing up 540 additional officers. Clearly a significant number of extra police.

As well as getting better at using technology, cutting bureaucracy and back-office waste at City Hall would free up significant resources for extra police officers.

In my time at City Hall as a London Assembly member, I have seen first-hand how Khan’s own police bureaucracy has become bloated. The Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) had a budget of £47.6 million in Khan’s first year. This has now risen to £58.1 million — an increase of £10.5 million at a time when Khan is cutting police numbers.

Before the Mayor gets out the begging bowl and complains about the lack of Government funding, he should first cut his own bureaucracy. As a proportion, too much of the overall police budget is spent on back-room bureaucrats and not police officers.

Khan’s policing bureaucrats consume 1.91 per cent of the policy budget. This may not seem like much but it is more than double the national average of 0.85 per cent. If this budget was reduced in line with the national average, savings of £32 million could be made — the equivalent of 587 police officers that could be put back on the streets.

I know from more than 20 years of youth and community work that people feel more secure when they have a stake in society and feel protected by the police. Before entering politics I was a youth worker in Ladbroke Grove, where I ran a job club that kept kids away from gangs through providing work opportunities. I also worked alongside the police to help with community relations, because I know the vitally important role the police perform.

So I know that we need to provide hope and opportunity to communities, especially younger people, and that we need a strong police presence on our streets to make us all feel safer.

I am running as the Conservative mayoral candidate to replace Khan largely because I believe he has lost control of the streets. If Khan were to implement the reforms I have outlined, it would be possible to put almost 1,000 extra police officers back into our communities and provide much-needed security. But his lack of leadership so far fills me with little faith.