When governments fail local community “Crowd funding” to the rescue

Hampstead resident use crowd funding to fund extra police officers after their local police station was closed in January 2014, as lack of police presence in the town is criminal acitivities.

A scheme to pay for their own officers have received pledges of £180,000 nearly 30 per cent of the target from residents in the span of six weeks.

Jessica Learmond-Criqui, who chairs the Frognal and Fitzjohns Safer neighbourhood panel hopes to secure a total of £ 600,000 over three years to fund five Police constables and a Sergeant dedicated to keeping Hampstead streets safe.

The Mopac MetPartol Plus scheme allows local authorities to pay for police officers to be dedicated to a specific area and Hampstead residents wants police presence.

After a meetingwith borough commander and more than 200 residents, last summer officers were temporarily placed on the streets of the town, and it brought an end to the sporadic crime spree.

A Metropolitan Police Service spokesman said: “Officers may currently be funded by local authorities under the MOPAC MetPatrol Plus Scheme whereby police officers are purchased by London Boroughs on a ‘buy-one-get-one-free’ basis.

“Arrangements are formalised with in Section 92 of the Police Act 1996 – Grants by Local Authorities. Requests for the provision of police officers, other than from a Local Authority, may be considered under Section 25 of the Police Act on a full cost recovery basis.