Last-ditch call to save police front counters

Ten police front counters are due to close at the end of this month, despite campaigners claiming the move could put the most vulnerable Londoners at risk.

The mayor and the Metropolitan Police had promised that every London borough would have a front counter operating 24 hours a day, but from 3 March that number will reduce to just two.

The total number of front counters will drop from 37 to 27, with 25 staffed from 10:00 to 22:00 on weekdays and 09:00 to 19:00 at weekends.

The Met said it was part of a series of "tough choices" to close a £260m funding gap and it would instead prioritise putting more officers on the streets.

The force said only approximately 5% of crime is reported to front counters, which equates to about 50,000 of the one million crimes reported in London annually.

However, campaigners say many Londoners, including elderly and disabled people, may need to speak to an officer face to face, as well as domestic violence victims whose mobile phone or laptop may be controlled by an abuser.

Maxine Pooley, who is among the volunteers who run Pinner police station's front counter in the borough of Harrow, said they had recently supported an elderly couple who had come in fearful that a fraudster had stolen thousands of pounds from their savings.

"They were in their eighties, husband and wife, very, very distressed. They're not people that could go online or do anything like that themselves and we managed to sort everything out for them and put their minds at ease," she said.

"Also domestic violence, we've had that with people, you know, young ladies come in very distressed and they're very, very scared."

The front counter, which she said currently opens on Tuesdays and Thursdays, is due to permanently close from 28 February.

"If we only have one or two people that come in from the local community per shift, then we've helped two people for nothing. It's not been a cost to the Metropolitan Police," Pooley said.

"The Met have said that they want the officers currently working on the front counters to spend more time on the streets of London, well, the officers at Pinner police station are not on the front counter because it is led by volunteers."

David Simmonds, the Conservative MP for Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner, has described the closure as "wholly irresponsible".

In a letter to the mayor of London, he said the plans had raised "considerable concern" among residents and "adds to an existing feeling that safety in outer London communities is often neglected".

Simmonds called on Sir Sadiq Khan to suspend the closure, saying that "basic questions" over the costs of keeping the counter open had not been answered.

The Met has told volunteers that the building would require £600,000 worth of work to address safety and security concerns, but in reply to a Freedom of Information request for more details the force said that this was "a high-level estimate" and "no item-by-item breakdown has been prepared".

"It seems that it was a figure that was plucked out of thin air," Pooley said.

In 2013, London had almost 140 front counters. Sixty-five were closed under Boris Johnson, and a further 38 under Sir Sadiq in 2017.

When Sir Sadiq was re-elected for a historic third term in 2024, he had made a manifesto pledge to have at least one 24-hour counter open in each of London's 32 boroughs that the Met operates in.

The Met had also committed to having at least one front counter open in each borough 24/7 in its A New Met for London strategy.

However, from March, only Lewisham and Charing Cross in the borough of Westminster will remain open 24 hours.

Bishopsgate Police Station, which is run by the City of London Police, has a front counter operating 24 hours a day.

The Met said Lewisham and Charing Cross were the busiest counters in the capital, however campaigners have questioned how confident Londoners will feel about visiting Charing Cross, where a BBC Panorama investigation uncovered evidence of racism, misogyny and officers revelling in the use of force last year.

The force has said reducing front counters is expected to save about £7m, but the Commissioner has also defended the move as part of prioritising frontline policing.

According to Home Office figures, the Met recorded a fall of 1,461 officers, a decrease of 4.3%, in the 12 months up to September 2025 compared with the previous year.

Addressing the London Assembly's police and crime committee when the plans were announced last October, Sir Mark Rowley said: "If a pile of extra money fell into our lap from the chancellor, there are lots of other things we'd be spending the money on before putting it back into front counters that have a bigger effect on London.

"We'd be putting it into fighting knife crime, sexual exploitation, neighbourhood policing."

Sir Sadiq told BBC London last month that he would "rather have a police officer out and about in our neighbourhoods rather than behind a desk".

"That's one of the reasons why last year we had an increase in neighbourhood police teams. This year, that will increase further."

However, Elizabeth Campbell, the Conservative leader of Kensington and Chelsea Council, said Londoners needed the "reassurance" of being able to walk into a police station.

She said the borough would be left with no front counters at all when the one at Royalty Studios closes - breaking a "promise" made after the Grenfell Tower disaster.

"When the police talk about local policing and being present, and being on the street, you actually need somewhere where they're based," she said.

"There's also an additional thing there about about trust in the community and trust with what the police say."

The Met said weatherproof phones would be installed outside stations where the front counters are closed, connecting callers to 999 or 101 services, and that the public would be able to make video appointments if they wished to have face-to-face contact.

A spokesperson for the mayor said "nothing is more important" to him than keeping Londoners safe and the changes were "an operational decision for the Met – based on resources, funding and public demand for services".

Paul Kohler, the Liberal Democrat MP for Wimbledon, said it was "ridiculous" that the borough of Merton would be left with no front counters.

In 2018, he won a High Court battle to prevent Wimbledon police station being closed, although judges ruled the mayor could go ahead with plans to shut at least 36 others.

Kohler had been a victim of a violent burglary four years earlier and said he had only survived because officers reached his home in minutes.

He said he was now "fighting" against the counter closures, including at Wimbledon and Mitcham, fearing they would leave others vulnerable.

"Having a front counter which people can go into at any time for help is really crucial, particularly to the digitally excluded," he said.

"People who haven't got a mobile phone aren't on the internet. They need a police station they can go into."

Kohler called on the Met to consider alternatives such as training more civilian volunteers to run the counters and said more than 3,000 people had signed a petition against the closure.

"They're really shocked. They're really sad," he said.

The front counters set to close are:

• Barking Learning Centre, Barking and Dagenham
• Chingford, Waltham Forest
• Church Street, Westminster
• Harrow
• Kensington, Kensington and Chelsea
• Mitcham, Merton
• Pinner (volunteer-run)
• Royalty Studios, Kensington and Chelsea
• Twickenham, Richmond
• Wimbledon, Merton

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