Police are “stabilising” after the borough forces of Lewisham, Bexley and Greenwich were merged into one Basic Command Unit (BCU), a top cop has said.

The merger from borough forces to one south east London BCU took place from February to November last year, with around 100 posts lost, South East BCU superintendent Andy Carter said.

Officers now have portable IT equipment including tablets which means they can spend more time in the community.

The changes also saw officers keeping crimes from start until finish, as opposed to signing them off to other units, but this meant less experienced officers needed more training.

Speaking with Lewisham councillors at a healthier communities select committee, he said: “As a result of going live in November we are in a stabilisation period.  We are still adjusting to working relationships both internally and externally. We have got to make sure our collaboration is really strong.

“So there is that cradle to grave approach. It means there is much better support and interaction with the victim, but of course what you’ve got is officers who are quite young in service investigating some quite serious offences, so there is whole lot of training and build up and improvement around that,” he said.

“Ultimately it is a huge cultural change for officers and takes a lot of getting used to,” he added.

He said the new equipment saw officers out on patch to cover the larger area.

“The whole practice of mobility and covering a larger area, officers have got equipment…which makes it easier to spend more time out in the community and less time at the station,” he explained.