![\"Police](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/police-patrol-richmond-park-in-richmond-upon-thames-southwest-london.jpg\")
<\/p>\nLondon’s historic Royal Parks police unit is to be disbanded after more than 150 years as the Metropolitan Police attempts to address a \u00a3260m funding gap.<\/p>\n
The specialist team, which has policed the capital’s green spaces since 1872, will cease operations on November 1.<\/p>\n
Around 80 officers currently responsible for responding to serious crimes, protecting wildlife and policing events such as the Changing of the Guard will be moved to local teams.<\/p>\n
The decision comes as part of wider Met cuts that will see 1,700 officers and staff lost.<\/p>\n
Police patrol Richmond Park, in Richmond upon Thames, southwest London<\/p>\n
PA<\/p>\n
The Royal Parks charity, which manages 5,000 acres of green spaces including Hyde Park, Regent’s Park and Richmond Park, expressed disappointment with the decision.<\/p>\n
“We are disappointed with the Metropolitan Police Service decision to close its dedicated Royal Parks police unit,” a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
“The Royal Parks MPS unit and its predecessors have been a massive part of the rich history of the parks in London for over 150 years.”<\/p>\n
The charity said it is awaiting full details of how the decision will impact policing of the parks.<\/p>\n
POLICE LATEST:<\/strong><\/p>\n The Royal Parks charity, which manages 5,000 acres of green spaces including Hyde Park, Regent’s Park and Richmond Park, expressed disappointment with the decision<\/p>\n PA<\/p>\n Criminal incidents in the Royal Parks rose by around a third from 76 in 2022\/23 to 101 in 2023\/24, according to the charity’s latest annual report.<\/p>\n Liberal Democrat Leader of Richmond Council, Gareth Roberts, believes a rise in crime is “almost inevitable” across an area as large as Heathrow and Gatwick airports combined.<\/p>\n “We will have that type of space within the capital being largely unpoliced,” he told Sky News.<\/p>\n Roberts said cyclists have been forced off high-end bikes with threats of violence, while other crimes include sexual offences and drug dealing.<\/p>\n More unusual incidents include gangs chasing deer with dogs at night to collect shed antlers for online sale, according to Roberts.<\/p>\n Commander Owain Richards confirmed in a letter last week that the unit will be fully disbanded by November 1.<\/p>\n Criminal incidents in the Royal Parks rose by around a third from 76 in 2022\/23 to 101 in 2023\/24,<\/p>\n PA<\/p>\n Local neighbourhood policing teams will instead take over responsibility, as is already the case in other London parks.<\/p>\n A Met spokesperson said: “Park users and partners can be reassured the Met will continue to respond to emergency calls, patrol hotspot areas, investigate crimes, and support events in Royal Parks across London.”<\/p>\n However, Roberts expressed concern that overstretched local teams lack resources to police the parks effectively.<\/p>\n “I have had people saying they will now feel less safe in the parks because they can be quite isolated places some of the time,” he added.<\/p>\n Labour MP Rachel Blake called the decision “a serious mistake” with crime rising.<\/p>\n The Royal Parks charity sought to reassure visitors: “We want to reassure the public that we are working closely with the police over the next six months to ensure a plan is put in place to maintain public safety once the unit is fully disbanded.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"London’s historic Royal Parks police unit is to be disbanded after more than 150 years as the Metropolitan…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":72591,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,393,4884,257,12,529,512,16,1259,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-72590","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-london","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-police","14":"tag-sgg","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-uk-news","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114446948362673758","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72590"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72590\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Police](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/police-park.jpg\")
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