A proposal by the Met to axe all 24 PCSOs in Brent as part of £800million worth of cuts across the capital has been dropped.
However The Met has revealed there are too many PCSOs in neighbourhood policing so some could be transferred into working on the transport network.
Under the controversial neighbourhood policing plan, all PCSOs across the city would have been axed or neighbourhood policing teams in London would be reduced to a single officer, rank unknown, per ward.
However Met Police Commissioner, Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, confirmed that plans had been shelved after he was questioned by the London Assembly Police and Crime Committee about the proposal last week.
Murad Qureshi, Labour London-wide Assembly Member, said: “PCSOs are the eyes and ears of the police, they play an incredibly important intelligence gathering role and scrapping them entirely would have been an absolute disaster.
“There is little doubt scrapping PCSOs would have resulted in the end of neighbourhood policing as we know it.”
A spokeswoman for the Met confirmed to the Times that neighbourhood PCSOs would be saved but some maybe transferred into roles which are funded by Transport for London.
She added: “The Met and the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime have committed to making sure that every ward will continue to have a dedicated PCSO which means that we will be keeping 629 PCSO posts within neighbourhoods.”
Related link: ALL PCSOs in Brent are facing the axeCouncillors call on Boris Johnson to block plans to axe ALL PCSOs in Brent
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