Met Police Commissioner apology for riots [Audio]

Metropolitan Police Commissioner meeting South London Business in Croydon

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe offered his apologies for what the people and businesses of Croydon had gone through during last summer’s riots. He was visiting Croydon Park Hotel and outlined his force’s plans in the years ahead as part of the “Promoting Business and Tackling Crime Conference.”

He told his audience: “We have arrested 3,000 and we are still taking people out. My officers have been and are examining a quarter of a million hours of CCTV.”

He explained that the numbers of police officers and police community support officers had dropped because new funding to boost policing for the London Olympics did not come through until about 6 weeks ago: “We couldn’t recruit people we could not afford to pay.”

The forthcoming passing out parade will involve a full complement of 500 officers and he said they along with CSPOs are much better trained than they have been in the past.

The event was hosted by South London Business, “a business development company set up to support and promote business, enhance regeneration, reduce unemployment and up-skill the work force.”

Around 50 representatives attended Monday May 14 to consider potential changes in the number of police officers and security for their businesses.

Hogan-Howe received questions from the audience after his presentation and many related to last year’s riots- a catastrophic event of which Croydon was a high profile and high cost casualty.

The consensus of concern communicated through the questions was a desire to make sure nothing like it happened again.

His apology and explanation of why police numbers in Croydon had dropped was elicited after a question from the meeting Chair Deva Ponnoosami: