14,711 calls in a year and just 16 town centre officers:How much pressure are Havering police under?

24th September 202624th September 2026 Francesca Lilleystone 0 Comments Calls, Havering, Police, Town Centre min read

Havering police dealt with thousands of calls across a 12-month period, with figures showing more than 14,700 calls across the ten largest recorded call categories, while the borough’s dedicated Town Centre Policing Teams have 16 officers. With officers also being taken away from their normal Havering duties, the figures raise a major question for residents: just how much pressure are our police under?

Figures from an East Area Response Policing report provide a snapshot of the demand placed on Havering police over a 12-month period.

The figures show:

• 3,163 calls relating to suspicious circumstances

• 2,917 calls relating to concern for safety

• 2,674 calls relating to violence against the person

• 1,919 domestic incident calls

• 854 calls relating to highway disruption

• 735 calls relating to anti-social behaviour nuisance

• 727 police-generated calls

• 693 abandoned calls

• 515 calls relating to civil disputes

• 514 calls relating to collapse, illness or similar incidents

Taken together, those ten categories account for 14,711 calls over the 12-month period.

That works out at an average of around 1,226 calls a month, or approximately 40 calls every day, across those categories alone.

And the figures only cover the categories listed in the report.

They therefore give residents an indication of the level of demand being placed on local policing, rather than representing every call received by Havering police.

But while the calls continue to come in, questions remain over the number of officers available to deal with them.

The Metropolitan Police figures supplied to the London Assembly show that, in May 2026, Havering had 16 officers in its dedicated Town Centre Policing Teams.

The figure is specifically for the dedicated Town Centre Policing Team and does not represent the total number of police officers working across Havering.

Havering is part of the East Area BCU alongside Barking and Dagenham and Redbridge.

The figures show Barking and Dagenham had 23 officers in its dedicated Town Centre Policing Team, while Redbridge had 33.

There is another issue which has been raised locally.

Havering police have reported an average of around 191 officer abstractions every month, meaning officers can be taken away from their normal local duties to meet other policing demands.

That figure is particularly significant when considered alongside the volume of calls and incidents officers are already dealing with.

For residents, the question is not simply how many police officers Havering has on paper.

It is how many are actually available in Havering when residents need them.

A police officer dealing with an incident elsewhere, attending an operation outside the borough or being abstracted from normal neighbourhood duties is not available to respond to another incident at that moment.

The figures also come as Havering residents continue to raise concerns about anti-social behaviour, violence, shoplifting, criminal damage and other offences across the borough.

The latest figures do not tell us that Havering police are unable to cope, nor do they provide a direct measure of police performance.

But they do show the scale of demand recorded in the available 12-month call data and the size of one of the borough’s dedicated policing teams.

With 14,711 calls across the ten largest categories in a year, an average of around 1,226 a month, 16 dedicated town centre officers and around 191 monthly officer abstractions, the numbers provide plenty for residents to consider.

And perhaps the biggest question is a simple one:

Is Havering getting enough police resources to deal with the level of demand placed on its officers?

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