We at Boriswatch Towers are, of course, as interested in what Bozza’s been up to as anyone else. Occasionally, however, we read an article about his latest plans or proposals which is so interminably dull even we want to weep.
This article in the Guardian is such a piece.
It’s all about Bozza’s decision to freeze police recruitment in London. The Mayor has found £42million in cash which is to be redirected to Scotland Yard to protect frontline police services. “In London we will buck the trend and have more uniformed fully warranted police officers than when I was elected,” said the Mayor.
“By the end of my mayoralty, we will have a target of 32,510 full-time warranted police officers – significantly more than I inherited.
“We are also rightly protecting safer neighbourhood teams, who are a superb asset to fighting local crime. My main objective remains to protect frontline services, and this funding will be an enormous boost to keeping our streets safe and having more uniformed police officers on patrol.”
In principle, this looks great. However, the Guardian‘s article then spends ABOUT TEN PAGES arguing over specifically how many police officers there will actually be in the capital as a result of this cash. We’ll spare you the details, but the article includes the following claims:
- 32,510 full-time officers will be in posts next year
- The draft budget presented to the assembly said the Metropolitan police was originally expected to lose 1,106 posts in 2011-12, but that this figure had been revised to 581
- City Hall said the current overall number of Met officers stood at 31,336
- a table listing the number of police officers, published by the Metropolitan police authority, suggests it is 32,502
- In the Policing Plan 2010-13, the budgeted number for full-time warranted police officers for 2010-11 was 33,091
- Opposition assembly members point to police projections showing that the number of officers is likely to fall to 31,913 by April 2013, and to 31,800 the following year
Please don’t read the whole article for the sake of your sanity. Trust us when we say that “there may be some more police officers in London after this announcement. Or there won’t.”