Britain’s top cop warns jihadis intent on murder could go undetected unless police are given more cash
Met chief Cressida Dick said cuts to the police would directly affect its vital work on counter-terrorism in the UK
BRITAIN’s top cop has warned jihadi terrorists may slip the net unless the Met Police is given more cash.
In a withering attack, Cressida Dick said vital counter-terror work by neighbourhood cops in communities would be hit if funds are cut.
And she told MPs the “herculean effort” to stem violent crime and moped gangs would be for nothing if the Met is forced to find another £400 million of savings.
She warned the Met may have to cut a further 3,000 cops – or 10 per cent of its entire workforce – crippling neighbourhood policing vital to rooting out extremists.
Ms Dick said: “One of the logical conclusions of the counter-terror review is that we will need to do more in certain local areas through neighbourhood policing to stop people from becoming violent extremists.
“Neighbourhood officers are the ones who people talk to, the ones told ‘I’m worried about so and so, they have changed.
“‘I’m worried about the fact they are on the computer all the time, or about the sulphuric acid I know they have bought’.”
She said: “I am very concerned if we reduce the numbers because we need to be doing a lot more work through them to stop people from becoming violent extremists.”
Ms Dick insisted the Met was under “unprecedented” pressure given the terror threat, violent crime, child sexual exploitation and the growing expectations placed on them.
The incendiary comments to the cross-party Home Affairs Select Committee came just days after Home Secretary Amber Rudd urged police chiefs to stop moaning about cuts.
The Tory rising star said police forces had a reserve of £1.6 billion so should instead spend their time worrying about how to make their communities safer.
But Yvette Cooper, the Labour chair of the Home Affairs Committee, last night stormed: “The Metropolitan Police are under huge strain already so it is extremely serious if they are about to lose 10 per cent of their officers.
“The Commissioner gave evidence to the Committee that counter-terror operations have seen a 30 per cent increase in workload and that counter-terror officers are working at an ‘extraordinary tempo’.
“Yet this force needs to find £400 million of savings in the next few years. This will hit performance across the board, but will crucially have a profound impact on neighbourhood policing where much of the counter-terrorism intelligence is first picked up.
“This is extremely concerning –we must not allow our stretched police forces to reach breaking point.”
