Questions to the Mayor of London – answered at on 19 March 2020.
What would be the impact to the Metropolitan Police Service, particularly on police officer numbers, if you were to re-open 38 police stations in London?
The commitment in the Public Access Strategy is for one front counter open 24 hours, seven days a week in each Borough and this remains. We know that many of the front counters which were closed in 2017 had very low footfall, with some receiving just a handful of visits every day.
The MPS are currently reviewing their estate in light of the increase in officers promised by the Government. An ongoing lack of clarity makes it challenging to complete this assessment.
Retaining front counters in buildings which are otherwise not required for wider policing purposes would have a significant impact on both revenue savings (which the Public Access Strategy identified as £8 million, the equivalent of over 140 police officers based on the disposals list at the time) and capital receipts needed for essential investment in technology, estates and equipment.
Keeping front counters open would also increase the capital costs to the MPS as many are in a poor state of repair and would need modernisation.
Our access strategy is reflecting the significant uptake in online crime reporting which shows we are responding to the public’s changing demands in how they access police services.