Trust and confidence in the Met Police hit new lows following high profile incidents and actions of some officers. Despite this, having met many Police Officers in my time representing residents, I know that the overwhelming vast majority want to work with communities and serve and protect them. The route to increasing trust and confidence in our Police lies through our neighbourhood police and it is why I am so invested in making sure they are well resourced in Brent, Harrow and beyond.
The Conservatives and Lib Dems in Government were continually choking support to our local police by cutting their funding year-on-year. Funding reduced from £2.5 billion to £1.8 billion and their cuts approach clearly did not work. I support the Mayor of London's approach to cut crime not police in Brent and Harrow and I have been working with local residents for increased investment in police.
Further local cuts to services made it harder for local bodies to invest in services that can help prevent crime. However, in spite of cuts, the will is there and local bodies have a moral duty to come together to tackle this issue. I have been working with all partners together to develop a public health approach to crime to help prevent the causes of crime so that we can focus on the root problem to important issues such as knife crime.
I know from my time as a local ward Councillor in the past how crucial neighbourhood policing is to building relationships with the community. I have carried out a ward walkabout with every single neighbourhood policing team in Brent and Harrow and help connect them with local communities. This has helped me better engage with the issues impacting communities at the local level in every part of Brent and Harrow.
Diversity in the Police also has a long way to go. I want the Police force to be more representative of London's diverse communities. There is a lack of BAME representation in the Police as well as female representation. I have been working with the MET Police to reach out to BAME communities so that we have a Police force that is better reflective of our community.