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Boris pledges £6m for 50 extra police on the railways
Pippa Crerar, City Hall Editor06.01.09
BORIS JOHNSON visited Bromley South today to launch plans for an extra 50 British Transport Police officers to patrol stations and trains in outer London.
The Mayor promised £6 million over the next two years to pay for the additional officers at more than 100 stations and routes. The funding delivers one of the Mayor's key election pledges.
He said: "Everyone has the right to travel safely and free from the fear of crime, no matter what part of London they live in."
The extra police will cover areas including Croydon, Bromley, Stratford, Acton, Seven Sisters, Finsbury Park, Wimbledon and Richmond.
They will work closely with existing BTP neighbourhood policing teams and the 30 new transport policing teams announced by the Mayor last year.
Reader views (5)
50 Don,t make me laugh we need 5,000 to be able to cover all the subway and overhead trains in London....
- Michael Francis, Fethiye
Yeah, well let's just also hope that "Everyone has the right to travel safely and free from the fear of..." a bunch of hastily recruited and woefully inexperienced British Transport Police who have far more powers than most of them can intelligently, safely and reasonably administer!
- Does this sound unreasonable??
No, I didn't think so but unfortunately in my experience it seems to be asking too much from the current employees, let alone any new recruits!!
Incidentally, do Police Officers (generally) actually REALLY understand that they are in reality plain old 'normal' human beings or do they all genuinely believe that they are far superior to us mere mortals that choose not to be Police Officers for ethical or other genuine moral reasons??
- Actually I Do Have The Moral High-Ground!, Manchester, UK
£60000 for each police officer.... can't be a bad salary
- Mike Hudgell, London, UK
What about INNER London, Boris?!
- Jacqueline, Hampstead, London
50 officers at £6m over two years equals £60,000 a year each - I assume they aren't getting paid this? If they are there shouldn't be any trouble recruiting!
- Jon B, London
