CRIME, POLICING AND PUBLIC SAFETY
The Mayor is the policing authority for London. This is the second area, after transport, where mayoral power is real and direct, and it is the area where the case matters most: the first duty of any government is to keep its people safe. The Mayor sets the Police and Crime Plan, sets the budget, appoints and holds the Commissioner to account, and owns the estate. The Mayor does not direct operational decisions in individual cases, and no Mayor should.
5.1 Trust and the state of the Metropolitan Police
The Metropolitan Police has been through the most serious crisis of confidence in its modern history. The findings of successive external reviews into its culture, standards and vetting have been comprehensively documented and are not in dispute.
Policing by consent is not a slogan. It is the operating model of British policing, and it fails when consent is withdrawn. A force that has lost the confidence of the women it is meant to protect and the communities it is meant to serve cannot function effectively regardless of its numbers or budget. Restoring that confidence is the first task of the policing chapter of this manifesto and everything else depends on it. Backing the police means demanding the highest standards of them, not lowering them.
- Stricter vetting for every Metropolitan Police officer, with the overhaul complete and externally audited within the first year.Indicative cost: twelve million pounds annually.
- Internal corruption prosecuted without exemption, with outcomes published.The Mayor holds the Commissioner to account for this and will do so publicly.
- Hiring and retention incentives for young police officers.Indicative cost: provisionally twenty-five million pounds annually.
- No police station sold as part of any estate plan.MOPAC owns the estate. A moratorium takes effect on day one. Indicative holding cost: eight million pounds annually.
- The Metropolitan Police funding gap bridged through the policing precept.Funded through the mayoral precept as set out in Chapter 17.
5.2 Violent crime and organised exploitation
- A severe crackdown on violent crime and organised grooming gangs, made the standing priority of the Metropolitan Police.Set through the Police and Crime Plan with dedicated specialist resourcing. Delivered within the Met budget.
- Relentless enforcement against drug dealing, with all profits and product seized as government property.Asset seizure under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 is already available and under-used. Self-funding through recovered assets.
- Knife carrying driven down through enforcement, youth diversion and violence reduction.Enforcement and diversion are funded directly. Indicative cost: forty million pounds annually.
- Serial numbering and identity-matched purchasing for combat knives and dangerous objects, with test purchasing funded immediately.Retail regulation requires national legislation. Test purchasing and enforcement begin now. Indicative cost: three million pounds annually.
On knives I want to be explicit about one thing. Section 139 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988 provides defences for religious and ceremonial articles. Those defences will be preserved. A policy that criminalised the Sikh kirpan while claiming to protect religious freedom would be incoherent, and I will not put my name to it.
5.3 Protecting communities and places of worship
- Zero tolerance of abuse, harassment or violence against any religion or any house of prayer, with dedicated funding for the security of places of worship.Indicative cost: four million pounds annually.
- Full protection of every law-abiding Londoner from discrimination, abuse and violence, treated as a policing priority with support services funded.Indicative cost: two million pounds annually.
- Rapid removal of graffiti and firm enforcement against the defacing of public property.Criminal damage is already an offence. This is a commitment to enforce and to clean. Indicative cost: six million pounds annually.
5.4 Sentencing and the courts
The Mayor cannot set sentences. Where this manifesto addresses sentencing it does so as a campaign, and the mechanism is stated. A Mayor making this case will press for a sympathetic hearing from government on punishment fitting the crime.
- Tougher sentencing for theft, repeat offending and drug dealing.Pursued through formal evidence to Sentencing Council consultations, published London data on reoffending, and sustained public argument.
- Deportation of foreign nationals convicted of serious violent and sexual offences, with London cases prioritised and outcomes published.A Home Office decision. The Mayor can press for prioritisation and publish the data on what actually happens.
- No London prison closed or decommissioned during this term.The Mayor is a statutory consultee on planning and can make disposal politically and procedurally difficult.
5.5 Neighbourhood policing and the visible officer
The single most consistent thing Londoners say about policing is that they never see an officer. Response policing has absorbed neighbourhood teams, and the officer who knew a street, its shopkeepers and its problem addresses has largely disappeared. Public confidence follows directly from visibility, and both have declined together. Bobbies on the beat is not nostalgia; it is what works.
- Neighbourhood policing teams restored to every London ward, with named officers whose contact details are published.Set through the Police and Crime Plan. Funded as a reallocation of priority within the Met budget. Indicative cost: provisionally sixty million pounds annually.
- Ward-level crime and outcome data published monthly in plain language.So that Londoners can see what is happening on their own streets and what came of it. Indicative cost: one million pounds annually.
- A published answering standard for 101 and online reporting, with performance against it reported quarterly.A crime that cannot be reported is a crime that does not appear in the statistics. Indicative cost: eight million pounds annually.
5.6 Retail crime, theft and antisocial behaviour
Shop theft and street theft have been allowed to become effectively unpoliced in parts of London. The practical consequence is that shopkeepers stop reporting, insurers withdraw, and the businesses that anchor a high street close. This is not a victimless category of offence and it will not be treated as one. Protecting the corner shop is protecting the community around it.
- Retail crime made a named priority in the Police and Crime Plan, with a London-wide reporting standard agreed with business.Indicative cost: twelve million pounds annually.
- Phone snatching and moped-enabled theft targeted through dedicated operations.Funded within the Met budget as a priority reallocation.
- Antisocial behaviour on the transport network addressed through expanded TfL enforcement working alongside the Metropolitan Police.TfL enforcement is under direct mayoral control. Indicative cost: fifteen million pounds annually.