Police chief Marcus Barnett is being questioned in public when he meets community leaders at the East London Mosque.

The Met’s Tower Hamlets borough commander is speaking at 7pm tonight, Wednesday, August 4, which marks the second anniversary of his appointment, at the Islamic centre in Whitechapel Road.

He promises frank responses to questions about his 24 months directing police operations across Tower Hamlets and neighbouring Hackney.

Det Ch Supt Barnett took over at the Central East borough command unit in August 2019, throwing the gauntlet down to drug dealers to stay away from the East End.

In an interview with the East London Advertiser at the time of his appointment, he said: “It’s irrelevant where they live. We find out who they are and start enforcement using arrest and conviction.”

He supported the use of stop and search "as a powerful and essential policing tool", he said at the time.

The commander heads operations from Bethnal Green police station running the Met's central east area from Wapping and the Isle of Dogs in the south to Finsbury Park in the north.