BROMLEY can expect to lose 12 police officers, next year, despite a promise from the chairman of the Metropolitan Police Authority that no borough would lose out under new proposals.

The Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) calculate how many officers Bromly will be allocated next year based on the number of officers there were in the borough between March 31 and October 31 this year.

This means Bromley's 437 officers will be cut to 425.

Conservative Assembly Member for Bromley, Bob Neill told the News Shopper: "Under the new formula, Croydon gets an extra 67 officers and Haringey gets an extra 110, while Bromley gets none.

"These three boroughs have a comparable workload. Where's the logic in that?"

Bromley's police allocation was discussed at an MPA meeting at the Civic Centre, presided over by MPA chairman Lord Toby Harris.

Chief Superintendent Gerry Howlett said he is concerned at the fall in officer numbers, which was 481 in January 1996, to the current 437.

And he is not the only one. Mr Neill said the situation was causing "great angst" in the borough and asked the MPA to retain the existing level of officers.

Chairman of the borough's police-community consultative group Brian Bennie said: "Only 40 per cent of crimes are reported.

"The other 60 per cent of victims don't report crime because police do not get there in time in outlying areas."

Lord Harris responded to the criticism by suggesting that as the police numbers released for six other boroughs were wrong, perhaps the Bromley provision should be clarified.

After the meeting, Council Leader Michael Tickner said Lord Harris had "ducked the question" about police numbers by indicating that sometimes the figures are correct, sometimes they were not.

l For a special report on policing Bromley town centre on a busy Friday night turn to page seven.

December 19, 2001 12:00