On 29th September the Metropolitan Police Management Board will meet to consider options regarding whether to axe all but one PCSO per ward across each Borough in London - leaving 629 in total – scrap all 1,017 neighbourhood PCSOs across the capital, or keep the current structure.Enfield had 42 PCSOs, as of August 2015, down from 160 in August 2010.By next year the Conservative Government will have slashed almost £600m from the Met police's budget. Since 2010, 2,443 police officers and 3,170 PCSOs have been cut from London's streets.
This latest development arises at a time when the Met Police has seen total crime across the capital rise by 3.5% in the 12 months to July 2015 and violent crime in Enfield has grown by 23% over the same period.
Joan Ryan will be meeting with Jane Johnson on Friday 25th September and has also written to the Home Secretary, the London Mayor and the Met Police Commissioner to raise her concerns.
Commenting on the proposed cuts Joan Ryan MP, Labour's Member of Parliament for Enfield North, said:
"There is nothing more important for people than feeling safe in their homes and on their streets, but the Tories are putting the safety of our community at risk.
We expect so much from the police, but they need the resources to do their job.
PCSOs are an absolutely vital part of visible neighbourhood policing. These cuts – if implemented – would not be fair on the police service and would be of real concern to Enfield residents, especially given the rise in violent crime and the recent, high-profile cases of shootings and stabbings in the Borough".