Not enough lockers: How bid for 20,000 new police could fall flat

A POLICE chief yesterday poured cold water on Boris Johnson’s ‘hugely difficult’ plan to hire 20,000 extra officers.

College of Policing chief executive Mike Cunningham warned of a series of challenges to the recruitment drive following the closure of police stations across the country and cuts in the number of training instructors.

And Mr Johnson’s own policing minister admitted there would not be enough lockers for the new officers to put their equipment in. Kit Malthouse admitted the goal would be a ‘challenge’.

The new Prime Minister yesterday announced that the drive would begin in September after months of demands for more police. But Mr Cunningham told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘There are a wide variety of logistical challenges that come with the recruitment process. Not just getting people through the doors, (but) the assessment process, the attraction, recruitment campaigns, the vetting... and then of course training people, making sure they are fit for the responsibilities that they have.’

An investigation last year found more than 600 police stations had shut since 2010.

Mr Malthouse, London’s deputy mayor for policing under Mr Johnson between 2008 and 2012, said locker space would be an issue. He added: ‘I know from my own history that one of the – and it might seem surprising – logistical issues that constrains the number of police officers is access to lockers.

‘Modern police officers carry a lot of equipment that all has to be stored somewhere.’