22/04/2014 BBC London News

Good evening. Crime in London has fallen with new figures showing that

nearly 50,000 fewer offences were reported last year compared to the

previous 12 months. But critics claim the figures are misleading

after a string of recent allegations attacking the reliability of

Metropolitan Police statistics. Here is our home affairs correspondent

Guy Smith. These have been the challenges

facing the Met, robbery, burglary, violence and even murder. And this

has been part of the answer according to the Met, three years of

highly visible police operations across London targeting specific

problems and it seems to be working. Total crime is down in the past year

by more than 6%. Robberies have fallen by a fifth, burglaries by

8%. Gun crime has dropped by 17%. Knife crime also has decreased. If

we look at the worst crime of all, murder, then compared to other

capital cities, London is relatively safe. In particular Ealing, crying

falling here by more than 14%. There are a lot of robberies around here.

I see a lot around. I feel safe in Ealing. I think we have had more

police on patrol. It is welcome crime seems to be falling, but it

differs across each borough. But the issue is how we are tackling crime

and whether we are solving crime. When you look at those figures only

one in six is solved in London. But the bigger problem is trust in how

police record crime. This officer accused the Met of routinely

muddling the figures. Things were being reported as burglaries and we

ran the same report and there had been a human intervention by

management and those burglaries had disappeared. Recorded crime has

fallen dramatically, so you cannot make 7000 robberies disappear. You

can't make 8000 burglaries disappear. If you took burglary as

an example, even if you do not trust our figures, most people have to

report it to an insurance company. Yet he did admit, that there was

concern, as did his boss earlier this year. We have accepted there

are more things to do. A Parliamentary select committee

report criticised the police for being less than honest. Ultimately

inaccurate figures gives an inaccurate picture of where crime is

taking place. Katharine Carpenter has been looking at the figures. How

much of a problem is it? It is important the integrity of the

figures. A force that once people to trust it needs to prove it is

keeping to its side of the bargain. Reliable figures are important to

the Met as well. It is under huge pressure to drive down overall crime

by 20%. To do that it needs to build up a true picture and know where it

is going to target valuable and scarce resources. There are plenty

of non`sinister reasons why figures are not always 100% accurate. A lot

of crime is not reported and the Home Office has recategorised some

crimes, so it is difficult to draw up a picture of crime trends. But

the people who are the victims of crime need to know their experiences

are being properly recorded and processed.

Talks aimed at averting Tube strikes next week and the week after have so

far failed to make any progress. Workers are currently due to walk

out next Monday over proposed ticket office closures, which London

Underground claim will improve customer service. Our transport

correspondent Tom Edwards reports. This dispute is disrupted the Tube

in February. Now the same thing could happen again. This afternoon

unions and transport bosses met to try and avert another strike. This

is about modernising the Tube, providing increased benefits to our

customers, getting more face to face contact with our customers. Instead

of people being behind glass, we want people out on the front line

helping customers. London Underground wants to close all

ticket offices and cut 950 jobs. It claims it has made the changes for

the staff there. The RMT union disputes that and says cutting jobs

will affect safety. A strike is planned for next Monday for two days

and the following week for three days. There has been a change of

language from London Underground in an open letter to Londoners.

It says stations will become personalised customer service

centres and we cannot stand by and for its customers to pay for a

ticket offices through their fares. What is interesting with the RMT

leadership up for grabs, some are saying that election could play a

part in these negotiations. Do you think it will have an impact, the

leadership? None whatsoever. This is a dispute about the London

Underground and the staff who work on it. It is what it has been about

since the 21st of November when the Underground told us they had to save

?4.2 billion and they had to close every London Underground ticket

office. All staff had to reapply for their jobs. This is the first wave.

These talks will go on all week. If it is not resolved, expect much more

of this from Monday night. It just leaves me to hand you over to

Wembley for the weather. As Wendy.

We will not completely escape the showers. Any showers we have seen

late afternoon will fizzle out tonight. We may have a few missed or

fog patches forming here or there. Temperatures will be eight or nine

degrees in urban areas, so it is a mild night. We start the day

tomorrow with plenty of cloud drifting to and fro. We will see

some sunny spells and there will be a breeze from the South East. It

will be 18 degrees in London, and that might trigger off a few showers

in the afternoon. This whether Frank is moving through, but the outlook

is not looking too bad. That's weather front.

It is never too early to think about next weekend and I will be doing

that in a couple of