London Crime Reduction Board launches

The first meeting of the Crime Reduction Board for London was held at City Hall with the Met Police commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson. Chaired by the mayor of London Boris Johnson, who has joined forces with Met Police, London Councils, MPA and key crime reduction agencies, the board will ensure key organisations are working together in partnership.

It will also replace smaller crime-related bodies to develop a unified approach to tackling serious crime in the capital.

The board aims to identify priority crime issues that London public services must jointly work together to tackle; streamline existing boards; identify and target use of best practice; strengthen relationships between criminal justice organisations, crime prevention and community safety activity and co-ordinate funding programmes; and maximise the value from each organisation’s limited resources through joint planning.

Johnson said: "Tackling crime will always be my top priority as mayor and this new crime reduction board will deliver the joined-up collaborative work we need to make a great impact. The links between education, youth justice, boroughs and crime prevention services are clear and for the first time all the key players will be sitting round a table delivering work in partnership. Londoners deserve a cohesive approach to fighting crime and I am confident this is exactly what we will be able to deliver."

The Met Police Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson said: "The concept of a pan-London Crime Reduction Board that has all the key players around the table to work collectively to further reduce crime has to be the way forward. I'm committed to the Met doing the suppression, to taking the weapons off our streets and this first meeting can hopefully pick up the longer term issues that are social policy and beyond the remit of policing alone. Together we can have a longer term and significant impact on making our streets and homes safer."