The number of frontline police officers in the Metropolitan Police has dropped to 20,951, from more than 25,000 in 2010, a Freedom of Information request has revealed.
The decline in officers was revealed after an MP submitted a FOI request, to which he responded by saying that the inner-city had the biggest drop in the number of officers.
The BBC report:
There are 4,000 fewer police officers working on the front line in London’s boroughs than there were two years ago, according to figures released by an MP.
The figures, for March 2010 to April 2012, were obtained by Gareth Thomas, Labour MP for Harrow West.
He said David Cameron needed to explain why London mayor Boris Johnson had allowed so many staff to be axed.
The mayor’s office said there would be 2,000 more front line officers in neighbourhoods under current plans.