Tory cuts have led to £1 billion being stripped from the Metropolitan Police’s budget, which has forced the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) to take some very difficult decisions. As a result, in July 2017 MOPAC announced that it intended to close Dagenham Police Station so that the building could be sold off. Barking & Dagenham Council threw its weight behind the campaign to fight against the closure, which was led by Jon Cruddas MP. A petition was quickly put together and several public meetings were held. It became clear that MOPAC had simply ‘done the sums’ rather than consider that some residents in the borough would be forced to travel for over an hour just to report a crime. The petition gathered over 4,000 signatures in the space of just three months and the decision to close Dagenham Police Station was reversed. Barking & Dagenham Labour successfully harnessed the strength of opinion on the ground and delivered a victory for ‘people power’ in our borough.