Neighbourhoods to get dedicated police teams

Every neighbourhood in London will get its own dedicated team of police officers under plans announced today.

Scotland Yard chiefs believe the approach to tackling crime marks a new era for policing in the capital. The Safer Neighbourhoods project will provide every council ward with a team of six police and community support officers.

They will patrol the ward and tackle issues ranging from " problem people" such as hooligans, noisy neighbours and aggressive beggars, to removing abandoned cars and graffiti. The teams will be "ring-fenced" so they cannot be called away for duties such as counter-terrorism patrols or policing major events. Officers on neighbourhood patrols will no longer be transferred in from other duties, which has depleted specialist detective squads in past.

The scheme is possible because of the growth in police manpower in London. In January the Met passed the 30,000 mark and is on course to hit 35,000 officers by 2006. The Met will use the extra officers for neighbourhood schemes, with 96 planned by the end of the year - three in each borough. Within three years the Met hopes to have schemes in each of London's 624 electoral wards.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Brian Paddick, who is in charge of the scheme, said: "We have tried community policing in the past but we have always had to divert resources because of changing public demands.

"For the first time we have a real opportunity to ring-fence officers, providing a reassuring presence on the streets while we maintain the resources we put into investigating and responding to crimes."