A merger between police forces in Enfield and Haringey is “going well”, the police chief in charge of the two boroughs has said.

Detective Chief Superintendent Treena Fleming, commander of the Met Police’s North Basic Command Unit (BCU), said the merger means police now have more flexibility when responding to crimes.

Enfield and Haringey police joined forces in January this year as part of a London-wide shake-up by the Met designed to help save £325 million by 2022.

At a meeting of Haringey’s environment and community safety scrutiny panel on Tuesday (November 5), Det Ch Supt Fleming said: “I think it’s going very well. With any change, there is still a period of uncertainty, but I think it is stabilising now.”

The police chief said the merger means the BCU can send a police response car from one borough to another to deal with a reported crime.

She said: “I think it makes far more sense if I have a crime reported near the border with Haringey and our nearest patrol unit is the Enfield patrol car, I can drive that car to the Haringey offence and they can deal with it quickly.”

Det Ch Supt Fleming said the BCU is responding to 80 per cent of the most serious calls – dubbed ‘immediate’ or ‘I grades’ by the Met – within the 15-minute target time.

For the second most serious, ‘significant’ or ‘S grades’, 75 per cent are within the 60-minute target time.

The police chief said: “We have always focused on I grades and how quickly we get there. For me, it is not about that – I don’t think the victim will notice if we are a minute or two minutes out of target.

“I think what they will care about is what we do when we get there – that we do the right thing, investigate their crime and provide a really good level of service.”

She added she was “really delighted” with the safeguarding team.

Det Ch Supt Fleming said before the merger, a victim of child abuse, domestic abuse and sexual offending might have had three investigating officers, whereas now they only have one.

She said: “That is far less confusing for the victim. It means we are much more joined-up and balanced in our risk assessment process because we know exactly what is going on.”

The Criminal Investigation Department dealing with complex crime and neighbourhood policing are also “working well”, the police chief said.

She added the shift patters of neighbourhood ward officers had recently changed so there are more of them patrolling streets from 4pm to midnight.

Ian Sygrave, a resident member of the panel, raised concerns about the number of police officers apparently being taken out of safer neighbourhood teams to deal with other issues.

He said: “It is of particular concern to residents who are just not seeing those officers.

“Obviously there are some things, like Extinction Rebellion, that are beyond your control.

“But there are other things at BCU level where you have more say. I just get the feeling officers are being abstracted for incidents within the BCU than they used to be.”

Det Ch Supt Fleming said a lot of officers had been sent to police the Extinction Rebellion protests.

But she added: “I will backfill where that occurs. It is difficult – we have to manage demand – but thankfully that does not happen too often.

“The great thing about having the autonomy that I do with two boroughs is that where I need to, I can flex resource, so if you have a particular problem in your ward, I can call upon other strands and central asset to come in and support that crime problem.”