Mayor Boris Johnson has a matter of months to make an impact on the rising level of crime in the capital according to a new survey conducted by thelondondailynews.com.

The recent murder of Jimmy Mizen a 16 year old in south-east London, is the thirteenth murder of a teenager in the capital this year alone, with no sign that this will end.  Londoner's are increasingly losing faith with the Metropolitan Police ability to target teenage gangs and the so called feral youth, in many cases the source of the murders.

The survey conducted by thelondondailynews showed over 60% per cent of the 500 respondents agreed that crime prevention would be the most important area for the new Mayor.  With over 40% per cent agreeing that the Metropolitan Police are currently unable to do the job of crime prevention; but are only providing assistance after a crime has occurred.  Even when a crime has occurred the detection rates are still very low, the recent revelation that even the Police accept that the dependence on CCTV is an "utter fiasco" and not enough time is given to investigative work.

The visit of the Mayor of New York Michael Bloomberg may be an indication that Mayor Boris Johnson is considering a "New York" zero tolerance approach to crime, i.e. every crime committed is to be investigated and eradicated approach.  The survey also gave support to the zero-tolerance approach with over 70 per cent stating they would "support" this method on crime prevention.

In terms of supporting the Metropolitan Police, the 35% per cent of those questioned supported providing the officers on the streets of London with more effective "tools" to do their jobs, like tasers.  The taser gun is currently being introduced across the nation, and is already used in certain parts of the capital on a trial basis.

Mayor Johnson has a period of months to address the crime problems in the capital, and will define his time in office if he succeeds or fails here.  It will also be critical that the new Mayor seeks to replace middle and senior management within the Metropolitan Police who have been described by sources with the Met as "too out of touch with London, and ready to go for the safe option, the real bobbies on the beat are always forgotten".

We will be speaking with senior Metropolitan Police officers on these issues in the forthcoming weeks.

Boris Johnson manifesto pledges on crime:

 - Trialling live CCTV on dangerous bus routes

- Doubling the strength of the Safer Transport Teams so they can patrol disorderly routes

- Increasing the number of Transport Police

- Giving greater powers to Revenue Protection Inspectors

- Introducing gun and knife scanners at transport hubs

- Funding new rape crisis centres

- New York-style crime maps to show the true level of crime in neighbourhoods