'Hundreds more officers must be deployed to tackle antisemitism', says Deputy Met Commissioner as he warns of rising costs
The Deputy Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police has told a Police and Crime Committee the force has "not got certainty" from the government over future funding to tackle antisemitism in England's Capital.
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Speaking in a London Assembly meeting, Matt Jukes said London has seen an "unprecedented period of threat to the Jewish community" with "seven weeks of sustained attacks" ramping up when four ambulances belonging to the Jewish emergency medical service charity Hatzola were destroyed in an arson attack in Golders Green.
The Metropolitan Police say they recorded 140 antisemitic hate crimes in April, compared to 98 in March and 67 in February.
The Prime Minister previously announced an extra £25 million pounds which he said "is being used to increase police patrols, enhance security at synagogues, schools and community centres, and place specialist and plain-clothes officers in communities to prevent serious harm before it occurs".
Matt Jukes said the 100 police officers deployed to protect the Jewish community is an "important stepping stone" but "would ideally be more like 300".
He said: "In truth, we are going to rapidly exceed the costs of even the operations as they stand, with the funding that's been made available insufficient to meet the cost of what we will have undertaken during this year.
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"And we have no certainty of that funding for the year ahead. But at risk we are going to proceed whilst the conversation with government continues and we see the funding which allows for a capacity of 100 to be built to be a very important stepping stone.
"But we think that to do this work well, consistently across London, but focused on the areas of greatest concern, we would put the number of officers required and a mixture of officers and staff, but the number of people required is in the region of 300."
Jukes told the meeting he would like to see officers specifically recruited to deal with antisemitism: "we are taking people out on a relatively ad hoc basis from communities across London to provide this presence.
"And we believe it will be more efficient and effective to reduce that abstraction by dedicating resource.
"It will improve the relationships with communities and with places of worship.
"And at the same time as we are reducing our numbers, as I say, we do get some choices about, some control, so we are thinking hard about the point at which we can start to recruit, to take account of this."
Also at the London Assembly, Deputy Commissioner Matt Jukes said "big tech companies” need to do more to prevent the radicalisation of young people in response to antisemitism in the UK.
He criticised a “toxic online environment” and said young people – mainly boys – had become fixated with violence and search for an ideology to justify it.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “The recent spate of antisemitic attacks in London have been horrifying. The Home Secretary has assured she will do everything in her power to protect our Jewish people.
“We have already provided the Met with £18 million in emergency funding to protect and reassure the Jewish community.
“We are working at pace with the Met to finalise a longer-term national policing response, to sustain the policing presence in London”.
The Metropolitan Police has previously said "the enduring nature of the threat means continued discussion is needed about the future shape and scale of investment to maintain and build this capability over time".