A new task force focussing on robbery in the tri-borough is to be launched and there have been no cases of moped thieves being rammed off their bikes in the area according to commander Jason Gwillim.

A new task force focussing on robbery in the tri-borough is to be launched and there have been no cases of moped thieves being rammed off their bikes in the area according to commander Jason Gwillim.

The Met is also currently in the middle of a recruitment drive to get back up to the target of 32,000 officers across London.

At present across the whole of London the police is understaffed by around 1,000 officers.

Staffing has been one of the challenges since the beginning of the tri-borough according to Insp Gwillim, but since the merger response times have improved and he is now planning on bringing more detectives to Havering.

He hopes this will free up officers so they can now follow through cases from start to finish.

He said: “We’ve changed one of the ways we conduct our investigations and we’re looking at ensuring our officers have the time to conduct investigations thoroughly.

“Our response officers didn’t used to investigate from start to finish.

“This will have a benefit for the victim, they’re no longer going to be passed on from officer to officer.”

New tactics used to tackle moped crime have been highlighted in the media in the last week, and these include DNA forensic tagging, the use of automatic tyre deflation devices and officers driving into thieves to stop them getting away.

He said there has been a decrease in moped crime across the tri-borough but officers haven’t had to use the extreme tactics to achieve this.

“It tends to be officers that are specially trained that deploy these tactics, and as far as I am aware we haven’t had any incidents of this [thieves being pushed off bikes] in the tri-borough.

“It’s very dangerous, and takes an amount of skill to be able to push them off without injuring them, as this is a particularly dangerous tactic.

“We’ve seen a decrease in moped crime without having to use extreme tactics like this, which is another positive” said the BCU commander.