© Niklas Halle'n/AFP/Getty ImagesThe scene of a fatal stabbing in Leyton, east London, March 2019.
I'm a police officer in London. Here's why we've lost control of the streets - Anonymous.
I've faced the aftermath of knife crime and seen colleagues stabbed.
Cuts mean we can't keep ourselves or the public safe.There's a saying in the police. It's not sophisticated or clever, really, and it's been passed down from generation to generation of coppers; it's not new. "The job is fucked," they say. Only now, it doesn't feel as flippant as it used to.
I'm a police officer in the Metropolitan police, and have been
since 2014. I have anxiety and PTSD. I am - and I cannot say this strongly enough - exhausted. I do not feel safe policing London's streets and, moreover, increasingly I do not feel that people in London are safe. Just last night, there was another double stabbing in east London, resulting in the death of a 15-year-old boy.It's all well and good vaguely debating "cuts", but on the frontline of service, those things have real meaning. In the borough I am stationed in - much like other boroughs - where there is a population of about 250,000 people, there are on average 10 police officers for the entire area to respond to emergency calls per shift. Only two or three of them can drive on blue lights. Crucially,
very few staff carry Tasers. With a big incident, such as a stabbing,
it's not unusual to have all of those 10 officers at one crime scene, meaning there is no one else to attend further 999 calls.
Comment: The UK's Shadow Business Secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey also came to Corbyn's defense over the criticism: