Now, more than ever, we need to protect and support community policing

Now, more than ever, we need community policing. Yet Safer Neighbour Police Teams across Camden have been cut this year by Tory Mayor Boris Johnson. That's got to be wrong. Local police, on foot and on bikes, know their patch and know their residents. The Greens want to see Safer Neighbourhood Teams protected and supported.

Highgate has been lucky so far - its Safer Neighbourhood Police Team is still at full strength. Neighbouring Kentish Town now has to share a sergeant with Cantelowes ward to the south. This is a disaster and could spell the end of community policing. It is demoralising our experienced officers, some of whom are taking early retirement or looking for jobs elsewhere.

This is happening because national police cuts require the saving of three hundred sergeants across London over the next 18 months. It doesn't have to be this way. Green Party London Assembly Member, Jenny Jones (right), has fought long and hard to protect community policing in the capital. We will fight to do the same in Highgate and to return the Kentish Town Safer Neighbourhood Police Team to full strength.