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Paddick: Met closures a risk
Pippa Crerar, Political Correspondent20 Mar 2008
Liberal Democrat mayoral candidate Brian Paddick has attacked Met plans to close local police stations across the capital.
The former Met assistant deputy commissioner warned the closures, including in Hampstead and Holloway, would result in fewer officers on the streets, potentially putting communities at risk.
Mr Paddick said the plans to centralise policing within boroughs were a false economy, and would "distance the police from local people, requiring officers to travel longer distances as well as distancing policemen and women from their own senior officers." Under the plans, all patrols apart from safer neighbourhood teams would be based in one location in each borough.
Mr Paddick warned this could leave parts of the borough without police emergency cover, particularly during shift changeovers.
There would also be one holding area for everyone arrested in the borough, meaning they would spend longer in transit when at their most vulnerable.
Mr Paddick said the Met should consult its own officers as well as the public on the proposals.
Reader views (3)
Brian, You're the expert so please...Sort It Out!
Whilst your at it, how about committing to getting bobbies back on the beat in London (the fully qualified variety as opposed to the hand-holding community variety that wander round aimlessly in groups of 3 or 4)?
After all, police visibly present in the community does reduce crime!
- Fraser, Telford Park, 27/03/2008 01:21
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Good! Well said! To my mind this is yet another means of getting millions of pounds out of citizens. If they are foisted off with "police shops", 9a.m.-6p.m. probably, how long ahead will it be before they too are axed. When rent reviews come in to play the shops will be deemed "too expensive". All the big police stations will have long gone to be posh flats or boutique hotels. More "family silver" is being sold by this government.
- June Gibson, London, UK, 27/03/2008 00:02
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If Paddick is elected, would it make him Blair's boss, the commissioner that is? Would be interesting to say the least.
- E.Roberts, Eltham, UK, 26/03/2008 22:00
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