Westminster Council is set to recruit its own police officers for the first time in a bid to crack down on crime in central London.
Nine Met officers will join the town hall’s new Police and Council Tasking Team (PACT) who will work alongside other enforcement departments to identify persistent offenders.
The £3million taskforce will help tackle “persistent and high impact anti-social behaviour” and “provide a highly visible uniformed presence” in streets singled out as crime hotspots, such as Victoria.
Council leader Adam Hug said the 18-person team was a “significant investment” in bringing down “anti-social behaviour and the crime that affects our communities”.
He added: “Anti-social behaviour has a corrosive effect on neighbourhoods. Whether it is vandalism, noise, drinking or the more serious realm of blatant drug dealing, it undermines the quality of life and can make people anxious to leave their front doors.”
It is the first time Westminster Council has funded its own Metropolitan Police officers.
It comes as the local authority rolls out dozens of new CCTV cameras and introduces new public space protection orders (PSPOs) across the borough.
In a bid to crack down on phone snatching, an extra 80 officers will patrol the West End and St James’s wards in Westminster following investment from Mayor of London Sir Sadiq Khan.
Other measures, such as purple lines with the warning “Mind the Grab” have been marked on Oxford Street to help tackle the growing number of thefts, have also been put in place.
Earlier this year, it was revealed around 957,481 crimes were recorded across London in the 12 months to December 2024, a rise of two per cent on the year before.
Westminster had the highest number with 91,380 - more than double that of the nearest densely populated borough of Camden (42,569), Newham (39,990), Southwark (39,500), Lambeth (38,116) and Croydon (35,374).
Council Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Public Protection Aicha Less said: “People get a lot more reassurance from seeing police on the streets and the new team will be on foot or on bikes – in the heart of the community they serve.
“They will be working on targeted intelligence and going to where our residents and businesses know they are most needed.
“We are already getting significant results from the council-run CCTV cameras we introduced in 2024, and the anti-social behaviour police team will build on that momentum together with the City Inspectors.
“As ever, the feedback of local people is invaluable in where we deploy these resources so they really make a difference.”
On September 1 a new PSPO – which prohibiting certain behaviour in an area – comes into force in South Westminster.
It will give the police and local authority the power to issue £100 fines for anti-social behaviour, such as street drinking.
Neighbourhood Policing Superintendent Natasha Evans said: “We are focused on tackling anti-social behaviour in Westminster and by working closely with partners we can target resources on tackling the offences that matter most to Londoners.
"These officers will work on tackling volume crime that leads to anti-social behaviour and especially crime that matters most to communities”.
