Islington News: Notting Hill Carnival | Police | Crime

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Islington Tribune - by ROISIN GADELRAB
Published: 5 September 2008

Carnival shifts police resources

NEARLY 3,500 hours of Islington police time was clocked up at this year’s Notting Hill carnival.
While police cover in the borough was kept to the accepted minimum of 32 officers per shift – not including Safer Neighbourhoods teams – over the three days of carnival, Islington officers were drafted in to cover 290 shifts there.
Islington Labour group’s shadow crime spokeswoman Councillor Lisa Spall said: “It’s sad that so many officers were used in a different part of London. To all intents and purposes we’d like to see maximum policing for the people of Islington at all times.”
She added: “It’s very important on bank holidays to have a full police presence in Islington, particularly because of the problems we’ve suffered with crime and anti-social behaviour.”
According to police insiders, the average shift over the carnival period lasts about 12 hours. No officers were allowed to take rest days over the bank holiday and those remaining in Islington worked longer than their usual eight hour shifts to free up extra police for the festivities.
Although officially, no Safer Neighbourhoods teams were supposed to have been taken off their beats, officers from at least two of the borough’s teams were sent to cover the carnival.
Islington police chief inspector of operations Steve Riley said: “Whether we’re concerned or not is irrelevant because we don’t have a choice.
“We’re told centrally what our commitment to Notting Hill or Wembley or whatever the event is and we’re duty bound to supply that but we maintain our minimum standard so we don’t go below the danger line.
“It would be preferable to have them on the streets of Islington because that’s what they’re there for but at the end of the day we have no choice. Even though our officers have to go elsewhere they are still achieving results and crime rates are down.”

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