The former Metropolitan police commander unveiled his crime manifesto yesterday, which included focusing officers on neighbourhoods and increasing the number of patrols in travel hotspots.
Paddick set out his manifesto while visiting a square in Vauxhall, south London, where residents have set up their own patrols following a series of muggings and car jackings.
The mayoral candidate said he wanted every neighbourhood to have its own “policing plan”. This would involve residents and businesses discussing how police should deploy their officers in the area.
Paddick said: “As a former senior police officer, I know the best way to cut crime and restore trust in the police is to get people and officers working together. That’s exactly what I will do as mayor.
“If the police and law-abiding public stand together, criminals don’t stand a chance. It’s not about vigilantism or citizen’s arrest. It’s the community saying this area belongs to them.”
Also on his list was the appointment of a policing ombudsman, with responsibility for enforcing “tough and clear standards of conduct over behaviours that have brought the police into disrepute, such as abusing stop-and-search measures, racist attitudes and corrupt relations with the media”.
Figures released by police show a rise in muggings in all but two London boroughs. Burglary rates are also rising across most of the capital.
However Paddick is not alone in pledging to make London’s streets safer. The Labour Party candidate Ken Livingstone, the Green Party’s Jenny Jones and the current mayor Boris Johnson have all promised to put more officers onto London’s streets.
The mayoral elections are due to take place on Thursday 3 May.
