Coyle demands government injects funds for more police officers amid knife crime surge
Bermondsey and Old Southwark MP Neil Coyle has demanded more officers on the streets of the borough as knife crime soars.
The borough has lost more than 400 officers in the eight years since the Conservatives came into government in 2010.
Parents are being mugged on their way to school – one was threatened with a knife in his constituency – and a member of the public who tried to intervene was stabbed in the back.
In another incident, near Canada Water. a victim had their jaw broken.
Mr Coyle said: “That cannot continue. Our police force cannot continue to do their job effectively if they continue to be under-resourced.
“Victims are being sent letters saying their case has been closed even before the investigation has begun. People are not seeing the perpetrators convicted.”
London Mayor Sadiq Khan, Southwark council and Met Commissioner Cressida Dick are doing their best with the slim resources, said Mr Coyle – especially since the shooting on May 3 of Rhyhiem Ainsworth Barton, in Warham Street, Southwark.
“The Met and Sadiq have brought in 30 extra officers and changed patrol times in Rotherhithe and Walworth to deal with morning muggings,” said Mr Coyle. “But we need to have greater visibility.
“The person who came to the aid of the mugging victim was apparently very lucky – a millimetre the other way, and it would have been his spine.
“It is a growing concern.
“There is only one public body which can change the way things are going, and that is the government.
“Nationally, there has been a 23 per cent rise in knife crime. But the rate of prosecutions is not rising at all. Nationally, there are two million unsolved crimes.
“People are literally getting away with daylight robbery – and all under the jurisdiction of the party of law and order!
“Some murders are not being solved. It is time for the government to do something.”
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