Our analysis of police data shows that:

  • Waltham Forest has the highest rate of serious crime as a percentage of all crime in London
  • Not only does Waltham Forest have the eighth highest rate of serious crime per 1,000 population, we also have the fourth highest rate of serious crime per police officer
  • In comparison to Hackney, which has a similar crime profile, we have 199 fewer police officers. We do not think this is right
  • Just to reach the London average of police officers per serious crime we would need an extra 127 officers
  • A specially commissioned report by the police into the Borough's crime profile identified issues that additional officers could help tackle including disproportionate amounts of serious crime and relatively slow response times