This meeting took place on 29 January 2014, 30 January 2014 and 4 February 2014. Read the transcript for the first section here, the second section here and the third section here.
The London Assembly Police and Crime Committee will next week begin its examination of Mayor Boris Johnson’s proposal to purchase water cannon for the Metropolitan Police.
On 6 January the Mayor wrote to the Home Secretary outlining his plans to make funding available to the Met to purchase water cannon to be available from this summer. It is the responsibility of the Home Secretary to license the use of water cannon, which are not currently deployed on the UK mainland.
The Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) has begun a public consultation about the proposal which is due to close at the end of February [1].
Chair of the Police and Crime Committee Joanne McCartney AM said:
“The purchase and potential use of water cannon on London’s streets is rightly seen as a significant expansion in the tools available to the Met to deal with the breakdown of public order.
“We must take great care in maintaining the British tradition of policing by consent and the limited appropriate use of force by the state. Any expansion of weaponry deployed by the police must meet the criteria laid down in the Committee’s report Arming the Met[2].
“Met Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe has said water cannon in London would be ‘rarely used and rarely seen’. We have yet to hear a convincing case for when and how they would improve safety for all on London’s streets.”
The Police and Crime Committee will hold a series of meetings with the following guests to examine this proposed further expansion of ‘less-lethal’ weaponry to the Met.
Wednesday, 29 January approx. 12.10pm, The Chamber [3]
- Mayor of London Boris Johnson
- Representative of MOPAC
- Representative of the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS)
Thursday, 30 January 10am, The Chamber
- Mark Rowley, Assistant Commissioner MPS
- Stephen Greenhalgh, Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime
Tuesday, 4 February 10am, Committee Room 3
- Sir Hugh Orde, President of the Association of Chief Police Officers
- Sarah Ogilvie, Policy Officer Liberty
- David Mead, Professor of law in the UEA Law School
The meetings will take place at City Hall (The Queen’s Walk, London SE1).
Media and members of the public are invited to attend. The meetings can also be viewed via webcast.
Notes for Editors:
1. MOPAC public consultation on water cannon
2. Arming the Met: The deployment of less-lethal weapons in London
- The meeting will immediately follow the Assembly meeting questioning the Mayor about the GLA Budget 2014/15.
- The Police and Crime Committee is responsible for examining the activities of the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime and investigating matters it considers to be of importance to policing and crime reduction in London.
- The Police and Crime Committee is established under s32 of the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011.
- The Police and Crime Committee has a statutory duty to make a report or recommendations to the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime on the draft Police and Crime Plan, s33(1) Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011
- The Chair of the Police and Crime Committee, Joanne McCartney AM, is available for interview. See contact details below.
- As well as investigating issues that matter to Londoners, the London Assembly acts as a check and a balance on the Mayor.