Harrow has the second lowest number of police officers per head of any London borough

A freedom of information request has shown that in December 2015 Harrow had 351 police officers - equating to 1.43 police officers per 1,000 residents.

The figures from the House of Commons Library showed surrounding boroughs were better resourced, with neighbouring Hillingdon at 1.79 police officers, Ealing at 1.96 police officers and Brent at 1.81 police officers per 1,000 residents.

Harrow had the second lowest number of police officers after Barnet, which had 1.39 officers per 1,000 residents.

The figures were obtained by Harrow West MP Gareth Thomas, who recently launched a petition to oppose the proposed merger between police borough commands of Harrow, Brent and Barnet which has received hundreds of signatures.

Mr Thomas said Harrow "doesn't get enough of a slice" from the government even though it faces similar challenges to other outer London boroughs.

He said: "When I talk to residents from across Harrow, they frequently raise their concerns about the visibility of police officers on their streets or in their community.

"I know our borough commander and our local police service work hard to protect our borough and keep our streets safe, but these figures show yet again that Harrow is being let down by government when it comes to fully funding out police service.

"Harrow doesn’t have enough police at it is, but combine this with the amount of time our police are spending outside of Harrow and the risks of a future tri-borough command it shows how much our borough is being let down.

"Harrow residents want a fair deal on police funding and confidence in our borough commands future from government, but did we get this from the budget? Unfortunately not."

Another freedom of information request revealed that police in Harrow were spending around a quarter of their time outside of the borough.

The Met Police is facing £400 million worth of cuts in the next four years, which is on top of another £650 million from the previous four years.

Savings options being considered by the police commissioner include reducing the number of senior officers and selling off some of the Met's estate.

Mr Thomas said proposals to merge the borough commanders of neighbouring Brent and Barnet with Harrow posed a further risk of reducing the police presence within the borough.

The petition to Cut Crime Not Coppers can be viewed at www.gareththomas.org/cut_crime_not_coppers.