How Does Havering’s Town Centre Police Presence Compare With the Rest of London?.
New figures reveal how Havering’s dedicated Town Centre Policing Team compares with teams operating across London, with 16 police officers assigned to the borough’s team in May 2026.
The figures, supplied by the Metropolitan Police Service to the London Assembly, provide a snapshot of dedicated Town Centre Policing Teams across the capital.
In Havering, the dedicated Town Centre Policing Team consisted of:
• 13 Police Constables
• 2 Police Sergeants
• 1 Inspector
• 16 officers in total
• No dedicated PCSOs recorded in the figures
The figures relate specifically to the dedicated Town Centre Policing Team and should not be confused with the total number of police officers working across Havering.
How Havering compares
Havering is part of the East Area BCU, alongside Barking and Dagenham and Redbridge.
The figures show that Havering’s dedicated Town Centre Policing Team was smaller than both neighbouring boroughs.
Barking and Dagenham had 23 officers in its Town Centre Policing Team, comprising 18 Police Constables, four Sergeants and one Inspector.
Redbridge had 33 officers, comprising 27 Police Constables, five Sergeants and one Inspector.
That means Redbridge’s dedicated team was more than twice the size of Havering’s.
Across London, there were substantial variations.
Borough Police Constables Sergeants Inspectors Total officers PCSOs Havering 13.0 2.0 1.0 16.0 0 Barking & Dagenham 18.0 4.0 1.0 23.0 2.0 Redbridge 27.0 5.0 1.0 33.0 4.5 Waltham Forest 16.7 3.0 1.0 20.7 0 Newham 30.0 6.9 1.0 37.9 7.4 Enfield 19.6 5.0 1.0 25.6 3.0 Haringey 19.0 3.0 1.0 23.0 1.0 Brent 27.9 6.0 1.0 34.9 7.0 Camden 53.0 12.0 1.7 66.7 20.2 Islington 21.9 6.0 1.0 28.9 6.0 Greenwich 32.7 7.0 1.0 40.7 7.0 Lewisham 21.6 4.0 0 25.6 6.2 Bromley 24.0 4.0 1.0 29.0 3.0 Croydon 28.5 5.9 2.0 36.4 10.6 Kingston 23.1 6.9 0 30.0 7.3 Ealing 7.0 1.0 1.0 9.0 0 Hillingdon 18.0 4.0 1.0 23.0 2.0 Hounslow 20.7 4.0 1.0 25.7 5.8
The London-wide figures supplied by the Met recorded 731.4 Police Constables, 131.2 Sergeants and 25.4 Inspectors, giving a total of 888.1 officers across the dedicated Town Centre Policing Teams listed, alongside 126.3 PCSOs.
Westminster has the largest dedicated team
The biggest team in the figures was Westminster, with 245.4 officers, including 214.1 Police Constables, 23.6 Sergeants and 7.8 Inspectors.
Camden was next with 66.7 officers.
At the other end of the table, Bexley had four officers, Ealing had nine and Tower Hamlets had eight.
The figures therefore show that there is no single standard size for a Town Centre Policing Team across London.
The number of officers assigned appears to vary considerably between areas.
What does this mean for Havering?
The figures relate specifically to dedicated Town Centre Policing Teams and are a snapshot from May 2026.
Havering’s 16 officers compare with 23 in Barking and Dagenham and 33 in Redbridge.
That means Havering’s dedicated team is smaller than those of both boroughs with which it shares the East Area BCU.
For residents, the issue is particularly relevant because Romford is one of the borough’s busiest town centres and faces a range of policing challenges, including shoplifting, anti-social behaviour and other offences associated with a busy commercial and night-time economy.
A changing approach to policing
The figures come at a time when the Metropolitan Police is facing financial and operational pressures and is reviewing how officers are deployed across London.
The Met has also been working to reduce the number of officers being taken away from their normal duties to support policing operations elsewhere.
For Havering, the issue of officer abstractions has been raised by local police leadership.
Superintendent Sharon Brind has said an average of 191 officer abstractions per month in Havering can have a significant impact on local policing.
The Met has said it reduced officer abstractions for aid by around 20,000 between April and July 2026 compared with the same period in 2025.
The aim is to ensure neighbourhood officers are only taken away from their local communities when the level of threat, harm and risk genuinely requires it.
The question for Havering
The latest Town Centre Policing figures do not provide an answer to the wider question of whether Havering has enough police officers.
But they do provide residents with a clear picture of one particular part of London’s policing structure.
Havering has a dedicated Town Centre Policing Team of 16 officers.
Barking and Dagenham has 23.
Redbridge has 33.
Across London, the size of dedicated town-centre teams varies dramatically.
The challenge for Havering will be ensuring that the officers assigned to its town centres, neighbourhoods and wider policing teams are able to spend as much time as possible dealing with the issues affecting local residents.
And with the Metropolitan Police under financial pressure and having to balance local policing against London-wide demands, the question of how resources are distributed between boroughs is likely to remain an important issue for communities across the capital.
For Havering residents, the figures provide another piece of the puzzle when it comes to understanding the resources available to police the borough.
The figures are official Metropolitan Police data supplied to the London Assembly and relate to May 2026.
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