There will be 32,200 police officers serving London by the end of next month

When Ken Livingstone ceased to be Mayor of London there were 31,398 police officers in London. As of next month there will be 32,320. So nearly a thousand more. Claims that Boris has cut the number of police are untrue and rely on using misleading dates. That has been some fluctuation but overall there has been an increase.

Yesterday Boris visited Richmond and welcomed 140 new Metropolitan Police Service recruits. These are trainees set to become fully warranted police officers. The centre is one of five regional MPS learning centres and students participate in a full foundation course, where they learn everything from search techniques, legislation and victim care. Many of the new recruits are Police Community Support Officers who are converting to become police officers.

Boris says:

"London needs high levels of police officers on hand to manage the many unique challenges we face in the capital. With careful negotiation and budgeting we have managed to buck the national trend and continue to recruit more uniformed fully warranted police officers.

"By the end of my mayoralty we will have 32,320 full-time warranted police officers -significantly more than I inherited, which is great news for the on going fight against crime."

Since January over 700 new recruits have raised the total number of officers in the capital to 31,760. Additional government funding has secured a further 160 transferees and a further 400 current police community support officers boosting the projected strength of the Met to 32,320 by March 31st 2012.