Sir John said the officers working in schools would boost police efforts to gain a higher profile in the community and prevent teenagers turning to crime.

"For the police not to have a presence there, in a supportive and preventative role, is just stupid," he said.

The officers are being seen as a vital part of the fight against street crime.

Today Sir John made a high-profile pledge that London would have the same feeling of safety as New York within two years - as long as politicians delivered on promises to fund a continued expansion in the force.

Scotland Yard has a record 30,000 police officers and the figure is rising monthly.

But Sir John still needs extra cash to reach his target of 35,000 - and warns that extra bobbies on the beat is the only way people in London will feel safer.

Met chiefs plan to place three police and two police communitysupport officers permanently in every one of London's 624 council wards - with a guarantee that they will not be put on to other duties, even in the direst emergencies.

"Every political party says the right number for London is 35,000 sworn officers," Sir John said.

"It is the job now of politicians to come up with the money. Give us the resources, we will get the results."

Fear of crime has failed to fall in line with the reduction in street crime revealed in the Evening Standard-yesterday, which has seen muggings down by a third.

Sir John said: "We know that we have got a high alert on terrorism. That affects people's feeling of security. We are doing a massive amount of work on that."

But he admitted there were serious concerns over the number of muggings not being solved.

The Standard revealed yesterday that just one in 10 muggers were cautioned or sent to court, while just 12.5 per cent of all crimes in London were solved.

Today Sir John promised a massive increase in the level of detections, and said he expected to hit 20 per cent by Christmas.

This rate is expected to be boosted by expanding use of DNA evidence, with the Met the first force in the world to attempt to analyse DNA from all crime scenes. And there are to be new efforts to increase the number of people going to court who are convicted with Crown Prosecution Service lawyers now advising police before suspects are charged.

Currently, at least a quarter of suspects walk free when their trials collapsed, and Sir John admitted: "We have been wasting our time taking people to court and not getting convictions in the right way."

Sir John will announce this summer whether he will retire next spring or stay at the head of Britain's largest force.