Yard drive aims for 6,000 extra police

Scotland Yard Commissioner Sir John Stevens today unveiled a three-year plan to revolutionise policing in London - culminating in a record total of 35,000 police officers.

More than 6,000 extra police will be put on the beat, with every council ward guaranteed its own team of dedicated officers.

And there will be a massive new effort to regain the trust of victims and witnesses in a programme designed to bring thousands more criminals to justice.

The reforms were revealed by Sir John at a major conference on criminal justice in London, supported by the Evening Standard.

Urban Justice - Delivering A Safer London, brought together 400 of the leading figures in criminal justice in London, including police, crown prosecutors, Home Office officials and probation and prison chiefs.

Speaking to the Evening Standard before the conference, Sir John revealed London is on course to have a record number of officers by 2006 - with thousands of extra police on special local beats. "We are going to have 35,000 police officers," he said. "We can develop a different service and we can do that as we reach our way up to 35,000."

The 6,500 extra police will be used to produce what Sir John said would be a "step change" in how the police operate, with every one of London's 687 council wards given a dedicated team of uniformed beat officers.

"They have to be dedicated to their area," he said. "The most successful beat officers I have worked with are those who have been based in that area for a year or two."

A pilot scheme where parts of Bexley in south-east London have been given teams dedicated to wards has seen the level of public confidence in policing soar to record levels.

The new system would guarantee a constant police presence in areas which now only have sporadic coverage - and none of the almost 7,000 officers on ward beat duties would be relocated to other duties such as counter-terrorism or major events.

Sir John admitted previous initiatives to deliver dedicated beat patrols had been hamstrung by the need to meet other priorities. But he said the massive expansion in numbers would prevent a similar situation occurring.

"The biggest problem for London is the complexity of London and all the other things we need to do," he said. "What we can do now is to deliver a dedicated team to the wards."

Today the Commissioner revealed for the first time details of Scotland Yard's three-year strategy to rebuild confidence in the criminal justice system.

Sir John admitted the current system for bringing criminals to justice is not working and added: "There is a very real danger that the public will lose confidence to such an extent they will disengage from the process as a whole."

Under the new plans, a dedicated team made up of police and Crown Prosecution Service lawyers will be set up in each police station.

They will slash the time it takes for officers who make an arrest to process prisoners from three hours to one, and be responsible for deciding what charges are brought, as well as deciding what evidence to gather in the case against them.

A massive investment is to be made in technology to allow police and prosecutors to communicate by secure email, cutting paperwork. There will also be an electronic custody record system to allow prisoners to be tracked without hours of form filling.

The IT drive will also include a hi-tech system which scans suspects' fingerprints and can match them to a national database instantly.

And a database of arrest warrants is to be set up, allowing officers to check if a person they arrest is wanted in another case - a move expected to solve hundreds of crimes.

The plan includes targets to increase the number of offences brought to court by five per cent, eliminate prosecutions which wait for more than 12 months to come to court, and make sure all persistent young offenders are sentenced within 71 days of their arrest.