More neighbourhood police officers have been deployed in Camden and Islington as part of a bid to "reduce crime and anti-social behaviour".

A total of 61 new police constables have started working across the capital's 32 boroughs.

They are among 113 new officers who have recently completed seven weeks of training at Police Now’s National Graduate Leadership Programme Academy.

The two-year programme trains officers in neighbourhood policing, but the officers will also spend time on response teams.

The 61 officers assigned to the Met begin have begun working to "transform communities, reduce crime and anti-social behaviour, and build public confidence in the police service as neighbourhood police officers".

The academy is separate and runs parallel to the newly formed A New Met For London Plan, which will see 500 extra neighbourhood officers for London as well as extra sergeants and inspectors.

Camden Neighbourhood Superintendent Jack Rowlands told the Ham & High the 61 officers are evenly split across all the London boroughs.

"We really like having them on board," he said. "Every six months or so we get around four to five officers joining Camden and Islington.

"They mainly go to emergency response team to learn to respond to calls and deal with incidents. 

"We are hoping that obviously increases as we promote our recruitment campaigns."