Trust your own eyes, Boris will make sure London has more bobbies

Boris's enemies are making much of a supposed "reduction" in police numbers in London over the next three years in the Mayor's budget.

In fact, we are converting some administrative roles into civilian posts, which will result in more officers on the street at a lower cost - it's called efficiency.

If you ask Labour or the Liberals how many police officers there are in the capital, they can only answer with a guess. "But Horrid Boris is cutting police numbers" they splutter, trying to imply that he doesn't take crime seriously. What's clear is that the number is actually meaningless to them other than as a political weapon.

Most Londoners don't realise that many "police officers" are fulfilling administrative and clerical roles. Is this the best use of their skills and training? Wouldn't we rather they were on the front line? Unless of course Labour would prefer us to maintain the 403 cops in the HR department? Perhaps the Liberals are demanding that we keep numbers up at the current 75 in the computer department? If there is a principle here it's lost on me.

And isn't it odd how they never mention Special Constables? These brilliant volunteers do an important job patrolling on a Friday and Saturday night, and we are recruiting them at an incredible rate. By 2012 their number will have grown from 3,000 to 7,000. Add them, and the number of officers actually grows rapidly.

There are currently 36,000 people at the Met classified as a police officer. This is the highest number in the history of Scotland Yard. Our duty, is to make sure as many of those officers as possible are out there, fighting crime on the front line.

Don't let politicians fool you with bogus arguments about numbers. Trust your own eyes and feelings. If you see more cops on the street and you feel safer, then we are getting it right.