Met Police chief tries to rebuild trust in Tottenham as problems plague force
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The man in charge of the Met tried to switch attention from the problems plaguing parts of his force and focus instead on how police are trying to rebuild trust.
Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley spoke to ITV News London as the newly refurbished Tottenham Police Station opened in north London.
Mr Rowley was keen to underline the benefit the new building would bring to the local communities.
But with trust at an all time low and hundreds of officers being investigated for sexual and domestic abuse he couldn't avoid questions about the state of policing in London.
"I've been really clear about the challenges we face and we have hundreds of officers we need to root out and remove, but today is about the positive side of what we do," Mr Rowley told ITV News London.
"Today is about reopening Tottenham Police Station where we will have a stronger base to work with communities to fix local issues - crime and disorder and the challenges communities want to work with us on.
"Today is a day of celebration," he added.
Mr Rowley spoke days after a teenager was stabbed to death near a church in Paddington, west London.
He said while there was still plenty of work to do, overall the capital had seen a drop in the number of people being killed.
"If you look at year-on-year stats we are about 20 per cent down on murders in London. We are bearing down on knife crime and we have increased our work on County Lines.
Earlier this week Britain’s most senior police officer insisted his force will decide when to use stop and search following comments by the Home Secretary that police have her “full support” to increase its use.
"The Home Secretary is being positive about stop and search as one of our tactics it's a helpful tactic and it's useful both she and the mayor support us using the tactic proportionally," he told ITV News London.
Speaking about the opening of the refurbished police station in Tottenham the commissioner said it was import to have community police officers in the local area.
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