In an episode of wild delusion and cognitive dissonance extreme even by his advanced standards, last week the Mayor of London triumphantly said on X: “The latest figures show robbery, theft, residential burglary and knife crime are down in London, but there’s still a long way to go before I’m satisfied.” He posted
this latest rhetorical flourish alongside an upside-down bar chart, claiming that “knife crime” is “19 per cent lower”, “residential burglary” is “10 per cent lower”, “theft from person” is “13 per cent lower” and “personal robbery” is “13 per cent lower”. The small print read: “Q1 2025-2026 as compared to Q1 2024-2025.”
Just how stupid does Sadiq Khan think Londoners are? The Mayor’s stats may very well be correct in the strictest and most literal sense, sliced and diced as they are on a quarterly basis. But everyone knows his claim is essentially meaningless when it comes to understanding long-term crime trends. Khan was first elected in 2016. Since then, according to Office for National Statistics figures published by the BBC, recorded crime has increased by 31.5 per cent in the Metropolitan Police force area, with violent crime increasing by a staggering 40 per cent. It’s going to take more than an upside-down bar chart to spin that.
The response to this is people taking matters into their own hands. From paedophile chasers to bike and phone thief investigators, ordinary civilians are taking up the fallen baton of policing. One fifth of households now have some form of doorstep security. Some 52 per cent of UK adults have either none or not much confidence in the police to tackle crime locally, according to a YouGov survey from last year.
As the rise of “vigilantes” reveals so starkly, we crave the physical manifestation of signs of law and order where we live — not at the end of the phone or behind an online chat. When state law enforcement seemingly disappears wholesale from communities, people will respond by self-organising in a fashion unknown in this country since Robert Peel.
In Bournemouth, a group called the Safeguard Force has received a lot of attention this summer, and mixed reviews in the media — but, unless the Mayor and the Met get a grip, this phenomenon is coming to London.
Away from formally organised vigilante groups, the self-policing of London is effectively already here. In one notable case this June, a west London couple “stole back” their Jaguar having tracked its location with an Apple AirTag. They told the Met, but it was much quicker to go and get it back themselves. Wouldn’t you do the same?
That couple joined many others in London who now routinely solve their own crimes. One of Arthur Conan Doyle’s more memorable Sherlock Holmes lines springs to mind: “I have a trade of my own. I suppose I am the only one in the world. I’m a consulting detective.”
If that concept was considered unusual in 1887, in modern London it is somehow now normalised. Armchair sleuths, moonlighting bouncers and civic-minded volunteers can make a real impact on crime without the £3.65 billion budget the Met often complains about. But the descent into vigilante justice is far from desirable for London.
Just ask the vigilantes themselves. In one well-publicised case, Emilie Martin, who reported a group of shoplifters at a supermarket in Hackney, was pursued and assaulted, sustaining a horrific injury. Vigilante justice is, after all, not law enforcement.
It is an often well-intentioned and voluntary response to the breakdown of modern professional policing, but it comes at enormous personal and societal risk. The presence of vigilantes themselves only serves to amplify the extremely low trust dynamic that seems to characterise so much of London today.
So instead of blaming or ignoring those who bravely step in to solve or prevent crime (in a genuine desire to assist the police), the Met should start by reversing its plan to close half of London’s police station front desks, covered by this newspaper this month.
When Khan was re-elected last year, his manifesto included the pledge: to “ensure the Met is able to effectively respond to the public, including maintaining a 24-hour police front office counter in every borough.” That promise has gone out the window at impressive speed, even by City Hall standards.
Remarkably, Labour in London is now facing an unprecedented rebellion on this issue. The party’s spokesperson for policing and crime, Assembly Member Marina Ahmad, broke ranks in the past few days, following follow Labour Assembly Member Unmesh Desai, who called the decision “devastating”.
Rolling back the physical presence of the police across London at well-known and identifiable fixed points is yet another green light for criminals. Maintaining a police station front desk may not be cost effective versus the number of reported crimes on the Met’s spreadsheet — but there is more at stake than bean counting.
If the public do not know where to go to find the police, and if the police are perceived as ever-more inaccessible — or, at worst, unwilling to help — then vigilantism will only increase. And gaslighting Londoners — who have to face the appalling impacts of crime on such a regular basis — over statistics will only lead us there more quickly.
Ross Kempsell is a Conservative peer
