Yard: comparison is unfair

The performance of the Metropolitan Police has been compared unfavourably with the NYPD by Home Secretary David Blunkett and virtually every other top level politician.

Statistics show New York is now a safer city than London after a decade of zero tolerance policies which helped cut crime by 60 per cent.

The Home Secretary, and others, point out that the two world cities are of similar size and have similar amounts to spend on policing. Yet New York has 38,100 police officers, while London has just 26,700.

So is the NYPD simply more efficient than Scotland Yard? The Met recognises NYPD as a good benchmark of its performance, but is adamant that crude comparisons can be unfair.

An examination by Tony Travers, professor of London government at the LSE shows that while the forces appear to have similar funds to play with, London actually gets £720,000 million per year less to fight crime. This is how Professor Travers' comes to his conclusion:

On the face of it they get similar funding with NYPD getting £2.2 billion and Met Police £2.04 billion.

But the Yard has to meet costs which the NYPD does not. These are: pensions £370 million, debt financing £14 million, cost of Met Police Authority £12 million, third party claims £30 million, National Squad levies £36 million, international/national/capital city costs such as Royal Family security and anti-terrorism £98 million. Total extra Met bill £560 million.

Adjusted comparison: NYPD get £2.2 billion to fight crime and Met Police £1.48 billion.

The gap will close slightly because Scotland Yard will be a big beneficiary of the £280 million extra Home Office funding announced in last week's budget.

But there is another reason why the Met are unhappy with the critical comparison. Sir John Stevens' deputy commissioner Ian Blair was in New York recently and came away with the feeling that the sheen is beginning to come off New York's police now that Mayor Giuliani is no longer in post. There is no denying that New York is a city transformed, with robbery, burglary and car theft all down by over 75 per cent compared to nine years ago.

But latest monthly figures show the first signs that the tide may be turn - robbery figures for Manhattan and Brooklyn jumped by more than 10 per cent in the month to 10 March, compared to the same period last year.

And there could be much worse to come because New York is facing a budget deficit of $5 billion (£3.4 bn) and needs to balance the books. New mayor Michael R Bloomberg is preparing to cut police numbers by 1,000, and officers are leaving the NYPD at a rate of more than 70 a month over pay.

But the real alarm for New Yorkers is that the operation which is credited with having had the biggest impact on crime in the city is about to be slashed. Operation Condor pays officers to work a sixth day in the week. In its first year, it cost $100 million (£6.9m), and officers working Condor overtime shifts made 20 per cent of all arrests in New York. But from July, its funding will be cut to just $39.7 million (£27.3m).