Kensington & Chelsea Welcomes Lib Dem Pledge of 2000 More Police for London

9.02.50am BST (GMT +0100) Mon 18th Apr 2005

Jenny talking to police officers in Chelsea

Jenny Kingsley, Lib Dem Candidate for Kensington & Chelsea has welcomed Charles Kennedy's pledge to introduce 2000 more police on to the streets of London. The policy from the Liberal Democrat leader came as part of a package to introduce 10,000 more police nationwide and 20,000 more Community Support Officers.

Jenny said: "As someone who is involved locally with Victim Support and the Crime Prevention Panel, I am delighted that our national policy commits 2000 more police to the streets of London. Our officers do a superb job but they are underfunded - and we would scrap Labour's plans for ID cards to help fund our commitments to the police service."

In an 8 hour shift, the average police officer only spends an hour and a half on patrol. The Lib Dems have therefore pledged to equip officers with hand-held computers and the latest speech recognition technology to cut paperwork and increase the amount of time spent on actual policing.

Charles Kennedy said:

"The real liberal approach to law and order is to be tough and smart. Crime causes real misery for the victims and no set of statistics can measure the human cost of crime. The fear of crime undermines whole communities. The elderly and vulnerable can feel defenceless which prevents people from living their lives to the full.

"That's why our package is based on visible policing. Seeing a police or community support officer on patrol provides positive reassurance and an effective deterrent to would-be criminals."