Police Will Come Off London's Streets to Cope With Protests

• Tweet

The Met Police Commissioner has told LBC he's "worried" about the impact of having to take officers away to oversee the ongoing student protests in central London.

The number of police allocated to demonstrations has been dropping with more on our streets instead.

But following violence during recent protests over plans to increase the amount universities can charge in fees, Sir Paul Stephenson says that needs to change - and will put pressure on budgets.

He told Nick Ferrari it will affect local policing:

"In recent years we've been reducing the number of officers we've been putting onto major demonstrations in London and we've had the benefit of that - we've had more cops on our estates, in our town centres and that's what we all want to do. Regrettably I am having to reverse some of that at this moment in time, to make sure I have enough in reserve."

The first demonstration, which saw students target the Conservative Party Headquarters at Millbank, attracted widespread criticism for its low police presence.

Sir Paul has previously admitted that it was handled the wrong way and that they failed to anticipate the violence.

He told Nick that lessons have been learnt:

"I've been very clear that we have to take a more cautious approach after the first demonstration. We have to ensure that we have sufficient officers on duty so we can protect each other, protect London and protect the rights of demonstration for peaceful demonstration and at the same time have enough in reserve should it go wrong. That is costly."

More than 250 student protestors have been arrested in three demonstrations so far - with more planned for next week when MPs vote on the controversial tuition fees rise.

There have also been claims of police being too heavy handed and criticism of the use of police-horses but Sir Paul wants people to put things in context:

"On occassions do we get the odd cop, the odd person who behaves badly? Of course we do - we have about 50 thousand people in the Met but the vast majority do a top class job. If I look at those first demonstrations when I came out very quickly and said I think we got it wrong - we didn't put enough people on and we didn't have enough in reserve - I was immensly proud of the officers who were there who actually did an astonishing job."

Or listen in our pop-up player