Camden New Journal - News: Lawyers in wrangle over ‘cash for cops’ deal

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Camden New Journal - PAUL KEILTHY
Published: 8 November 2007

Lawyers in wrangle over ‘cash for cops’ deal

TOWN HALL and Scotland Yard lawyers are currently wrangling over a “cash for cops” deal through which a group of businesses wants to hire extra policing.
Firms in the Holborn Business Improvement District (BID) – a partnership of 230 businesses whose premises are value million – have approached the Met asking to “purchase” two extra police officers at a cost of £20,000 per year for two years.
But the deal, approved by the police despite the fact that Holborn has low crime rates compared with the rest of the borough, is on hold while lawyers work out a way for the cash arrangements to stay legal.
Metropolitan Police rules state that while Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) can be “purchased, as Camden Council did recently in order to boost the presence in Camden Town with 18 PCSOs at a cost of £300,000, the deal is only open to local authorities.
On Wednesday, councillors agreed that Camden would act as middle man, officially buying the extra cops on condition that Holborn BID paid the Town Hall in full.
But the twin contracts have yet to be hammered out. Chief executive of the Holborn BID, Tass Mavrogordato, said on Monday that she was unable to comment on the deal while talks with the police and council are ongoing.
The report to councillors said: “Although Holborn does not feature as highly as other areas in Camden in terms of crime and disorder it is an area where there are strong partnership arrangements and police and council resources are tasked to tackle anti-social behaviour and street environmental issues.”

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