Overview

• Official figures show total recorded crimes for April–June dipped from 236,972 to 234,523 year-on-year, led by 13% falls in theft-from-person and personal robbery and a 10% drop in residential burglary.
• Analysis of Metropolitan Police data reveals increases in weapons possession, rape and drug trafficking during the same period.
• The Mayor’s Office reports a 19% reduction in knife crime, although the figure remains unverified pending public release of underlying data.
• Mayor Sadiq Khan, buoyed by record City Hall funding, has launched a policing blitz in 20 blighted town centres targeting shoplifting, robbery, knife crime and antisocial behaviour.
• The Met has proposed closing nearly half of its station front counters to save £7 million against a £260 million budget gap while Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley stresses a ‘smaller but more capable’ force.