Hackney was one of the first local authorities in the country to have benefited from the complete roll-out of Safer Neighbourhood Teams (SNTs) - dedicated police teams that were focussed upon tackling crime and anti-social behaviour in each of the wards in the borough.This localised and specific resource has been critical to the reduction in crime and helped ensure that confidence in our police has increased dramatically in the past couple of years. Now however, more details have come to light of how the police locally are having to face up to the cuts that will put all of this good work to risk - after an email from the Borough Commander, Steve Bending (pictured).
To date, each ward has had one sergeant, two PCs and three PCSOs to help police the ward. The borough commander has now identified that five SNT sergeants will be removed later this year and that the ward resources will no longer be ring-fenced and that much of the resources will be made available for other policing work.
Not only will the number of officers in total be reduced, but the reduction will be at the most experienced level - sergeants - who are critical in guiding operations, tasking resources and helping to drive through performance. Also, by removing the resources that are dedicated to ward policing, the highly visible local policing and the ability to meet the demands of local residents and priorities, will be dramatically reduced.
Having built up Hackney residents' confidence over the past few years - the cuts forced upon the police by the Tory-led government will now not only shatter this progress and development, but will also now threaten the ability of our police to meet local aspirations and respond to local priorities.
This is the beginning of what the cuts will mean for our vital public services outside the council - and we will be raising our concerns with the Metropolitan Police Authority and Jennette Arnold, our GLA member, who sits on the body.
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