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Mayor's bus police cut theft and vandalism by a third
Justin Davenport, Crime Correspondent15.06.09
The number of bus robberies and cases of vandalism on London's buses has fallen by more than a third since Boris Johnson became Mayor.
But latest figures show sex offences were up from 480 to 535, a rise of 11 per cent.
The Mayor said that new transport hub patrol teams have cut cases of vandalism on the buses from 5,846 to 3,723, with robberies down from 4,266 to 2,761 and violent incidents down from 8,400 to 7,609.
The overall figure is an 18 per cent drop in crime on buses in the capital - making it the lowest level of crime for five years.
Mr Johnson released the latest statistics as he launched the last of 32 policing teams dedicated to patrolling transport hubs across London.
The teams - which include two police officers and seven PCSOs - travel on the buses and patrol bus stations.
Mr Johnson said: "When I became Mayor, I pledged to make buses, trains and stations safer. It is extremely encouraging to see the positive effect these policing teams are having across the capital.
"Crime on buses has fallen in every single borough and this is in no small part thanks to the increased number of officers around our transport network."
Transport for London said there were now just 12 crimes for every million bus journeys taken.
Metropolitan Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Rod Jarman added: "We intend to send out a clear message that anti-social and criminal activity in and around transport hubs and their environs will not be tolerated."
There were major crime falls in some outlying London boroughs.
Overall bus crime was down by 43 per cent in Bexley and there were 26 per cent falls in Greenwich and Richmond.
Overall crime in Camden and Haringey was down by 28 per cent and 24 per cent.
The figures showed that the number of drugs offences rose by 14 per cent - from 683 to 779 - mainly due to the increased number of people being stopped by police.
Fraud offences or ticket evasion was down seven per cent from 414 cases to 387.
In total there were 27,062 crimes on the buses in the financial year 2008/09 compared with 33,125 the previous year.
The pledge to cut crime on buses was a key part of the Mayor's election campaign.
Mr Jarman added: "These new policing teams, the result of an innovative partnership between the police and Transport for London, provide high visibility, locally accountable policing on busy transport interchanges and stations across the capital. They have achieved very promising results."
