Reckless on numbers

Published: August 25, 2011

YOU report that businesses are imploring the government to rethink cuts to police numbers in the wake of the Camden riots. 

It is not only businesses. While canvassing as Labour candidate in the forthcoming Camden Council by-election in Highgate, I have spoken to many voters who are already dismayed by the lack of a police presence very late at night when gangs of youths hang around on estates and street corners drinking vodka and smoking cannabis and crack.

Residents do not dare to intervene on their own. That is why the government is reckless to press ahead with cuts to police numbers – 50 in Camden alone – and why Labour is campaigning so strongly in this by-election to stop the cuts.
Sally Gimson
Labour Party candidate Highgate by-election