The Mayor would like to give the police far more latitude, with police commanders having more say in deploying officers within schools.

Top police officials have acknowledged publicly that they deployed too few officers and lacked a coherent strategy to contain the violence.

That means enlarging local police forces and deploying officers more effectively.

The system deployed officers to areas based on need.

The police analyze the figures, devise new strategies to combat the crimes, deploy officers accordingly and do follow-up studies on the results.

Strategically deploying officers at the times and places they are most needed makes the best use of the staff, he said.

When they need to deploy officers outside of London, they work closely with local police forces.

A police spokesman said that "We would never deploy officers in this way or condone such behaviour."

Police officials said basic information was needed for a database that would identify centers of protest organization to help deploy officers at future demonstrations.

The agency plans to deploy officers on subway lines and in stations where begging is particularly prevalent.