Ken sets target for Met

Nearly a third of all London's police officers will be black or Asian and a quarter will be women under radical crimefighting plans unveiled by Ken Livingstone today.

Revealing his law and order manifesto for the first time, the Labour candidate for Mayor also pledged to clamp down on Tube ticket touts and use beat bobbies to patrol parks and shopping centres.

With crime rapidly emerging as the key battleground in the election, Mr Livingstone said he wanted a "large, visible and effective" Metropolitan Police force to ease public fears.

At the centre of the Labour manifesto are moves to boost officer numbers by 5,000 to a record 35,000 by 2008. The rise will allow every area to have its own six-strong neighbourhood squad of bobbies on the beat.

But Mr Livingstone stressed that many of the recruits should be either black, Asian or women as the Met could only win local support and crucial intelligence if it reflected the communities it served. His manifesto stated that Labour would work with the Met to " accelerate progress". towards a target of 30 per cent of officers from ethnic minority backgrounds. At present it is only 6.5 per cent. He is also hoping to raise the number of women from 18 to 25 per cent.

He also promised that new Neighbourhood Police teams would be used to rescue parks and some shopping centres from gangs of teenagers.

To boost numbers on the street, civilian staff will be used to carry out paperwork currently conducted by police.