Louie French MP's latest column in the News Shopper.
Bexley is one of the safest places to live in London. We have the fifth-lowest crime rate in the capital, only narrowly beaten by other outer boroughs such as Sutton and Harrow. Meanwhile, Islington's crime rate is twice Bexley's; in Greenwich, it's 50 per cent higher than here.
These crime statistics explain why police officers and resources are too often taken away from our community and redeployed elsewhere. This situation was made worse in 2018 by Sadiq Khan's decision to axe the Metropolitan Police's 32-borough structure and lump Bexley's local police together with Greenwich and Lewisham despite our different policing needs and priorities.
But we don't feel as safe as these headline crime statistics suggest — the reason why is simple: local policing has been decimated in Bexley, and neighbourhood crime often goes unsolved on Sadiq Khan's watch.
The number of dedicated neighbourhood officers has plummeted by two-thirds during his mayoralty. Under Boris Johnson in 2015, the Metropolitan Police employed 6,459 safer neighbourhood officers. Today, that number is 2,310.
The previous Conservative government recruited 20,000 additional officers across the country. Every police force met its recruitment targets except the Met Police, which fell short by 1,089 officers. Ultimately, Mayor Khan handed £31 million back to the Home Office for failing to recruit these officers.
We can also see the demise of local policing under Khan in the collapse of special constable and community support officer numbers. Too many people feel unsafe in Bexley because neighbourhood policing is weak in many areas and we've lost our borough command structure.
Behind low overall crime numbers lies a serious problem with neighbourhood crime. Car theft has risen by 25% over the past twelve months, with more than 1,100 vehicles stolen in our borough.
Despite the valiant efforts of our local Safer Neighbourhood Teams to crack down on car thieves, only 25 were caught in the last twelve months. This is more than any other borough, but it's still far too low. Our local officers simply haven't been given the resources they need to stamp it out because the Metropolitan Police haven't prioritised it.
But the problem extends beyond car crime. Shoplifting has increased by 68% in Sidcup and 179% in Welling, our borough's second and third largest town centres. While burglary hasn't risen, sadly, too few burglars have been caught, with only 16 positive outcomes over two years despite 688 homes being broken into in the constituency of Old Bexley and Sidcup.
Something has got to change, and it has to be the restoration of borough-by-borough leadership and neighbourhood policing. It's the key to investigating more crimes and catching criminals again. That's the message I delivered to Sadiq Khan in response to his little-known consultation on London's police and crime plan.
