Less than half of all Londoners feel that the police are doing a good job in their local area, data from the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) shows.
MOPAC’s data shows the proportion of Londoners who feel the police do a good job in their local area in June 2024 was just 46%, ten percent less than five years prior (June 2019).
The London-wide average was 67% in December 2014, but this figure fell to 48% a decade later.
Sophie Khan, director of policy & legal at the Police Action Centre, said: “In my view, policing is beyond repair now.
“People have given up, that’s why there’s been that 20% decrease. In June 2014 there was a feeling of ‘we’ve got a police service, let’s try to engage with it’ but now people are saying, what is even the point of engaging with the police?
“That’s where we are, that’s what I think the figures are showing – people are disengaging, and I think the figures will probably go lower and lower from now on.”
As of June 2024, the borough with the highest level of support is the City of Westminster, where 59% of residents felt that the police did a good job in their local area.
The top five boroughs in terms of highest level of support are rounded out by Kingston Upon Thames, Kensington and Chelsea, Harrow and Hillingdon all between 54 and 57%.
But all of those have significantly dipped from 2014, where the lowest of the five was Hillingdon on two-thirds.
Waltham Forest is the borough with the lowest level of support in June 2024, as just 37% of residents feel that the police do a good job in their local area.
Southwark, Hackney, Haringey and Croydon round out the bottom five, with between 40 and 42% support.
However, just 11 boroughs saw more than half of residents show support in 2024, while a majority of residents in all 32 London boroughs supported the notion a decade prior.
In terms of geography, the highest level of support tends to coalesce in south west London, while generally, north east Londoners had the least satisfaction with the police in their local area.
Despite the highest level of support, south west London had the largest decrease in support over the ten years, dropping from a regional average of 73% in 2014 to 52% in 2024.
In comparison, north east London had the lowest start point at 60% support in 2014 but the smallest decrease among the four regions, dropping to an average of 43% support within the area a decade later.
During the same period, south east London suffered a 17% drop in support from 64% to 47% over the decade, while belief in the police in north west London dropped 19% from 68% to 49%.
In terms of the causes behind this growing dissatisfaction, Susan Hall AM, Conservative London-wide Assembly Member and Chairman of the Police and Crime Committee, said: “The police are very, very stretched. On many occasions, they just can’t get around to getting crimes solved.
“A Freedom of Information request came through saying that 70,000 phones have been stolen in London in 2024, which is up 40%. If you’re somebody that’s had something stolen from you, obviously if it hasn’t been solved or you haven’t got your property back that’s going to make you feel less friendly towards the police.
“This is very sad that this is happening because 99.9% of our police officers are really good, hard working people so it must be very depressing for them to see that trust and confidence has fallen so greatly, but they need more funding and they need more officers on the street, not less.”
However, Khan reckons the actions of the police mean future re-engagement is impossible, meaning a shift towards community-based policing is necessary.
She said: “I think there’s definitely an issue with disengagement because after so many issues there’s been with the police, not just with how young black men are being policed, but also with how women are being treated and generally how crimes are not being investigated.
“Resource issues are always going to be an issue, but there should be enough to investigate crimes – other things may not, but at least investigate the crimes that are being committed in the community if that’s what policing is meant to do.
“I think what should happen now is more community-based solutions and organisations to try to fill the gap where there are issues in certain communities and try to deal with them within their own communities rather than having a borough police that is disengaged with who they are meant to be policing.”
The Metropolitan Police were approached for comment.
Feature image sourced from Unsplash.com, free to use under Unsplashed license
Join the discussion