New police recruits coming to work in the borough have paid a visit to Walthamstow Town Hall.

Twenty recruits out of the 119 new police officers secured to work in the borough by 2015 visited Waltham Forest as they continue their training at Hendon Police Training Centre.

A council-led campaign entitled We Need Your Back Up was launched in early 2011 after residents and the council complained the borough needed extra resources.

More than 7,500 residents called on the Metropolitan Police Authority and Mayor Boris Johnson to redress the balance in police numbers.

In 2013, Boris Johnson announced Waltham Forest would receive the biggest increase in police officers in London.

So far, 65 of the 119 officers have been allocated to the force and a further 14 will be starting on Monday. The new recruits will bring the size of the force up to 579 officers across all ranks. 

Borough Commander Mark Collins says policing across the borough is heading in the right direction. "I was extremely pleased with the allocation of 119 new officers under the new Local Policing Model, which we implemented in September 2013.

"The new officers have achieved some excellent results and we will be welcoming a further 14 new officers on Monday who will be a valuable asset to the borough.

"We are now heading in the right direction towards our target strength. We are one of only two boroughs in the whole Met who have seen a reduction for the third year in burglary and robbery and currently we are seeing a reduction in all crime types apart from domestic violence," said Mr Collins.

Council leader Chris Robbins said: “We have worked hard over the years, paying for extra officers and finding innovative solutions such as our anti-gangs initiative.

“We really value our local force and have an excellent working partnership with them, but what we really always needed was more police on the streets, and thankfully we have now managed to make that a reality with 119 new officers coming to Waltham Forest."

Waltham Forest currently has fewer police officers than neighbouring boroughs such as Newham with 772 officers or Hackney with 606 because it is classed as an outer London borough.