Metropolitan Police investigations are ‘inadequate‘ according to official inspectors. The Met had already been placed into ‘Engage’ by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary, Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS), after the last inspection, in 2022, meaning enhanced monitoring.
Among the inspectors’ findings, were ‘examples of complex crimes being allocated to officers with only basic investigative training. For example, a commercial robbery with multiple lines of enquiry was being investigated by an inexperienced officer with little supervision’; and ‘inexperienced officers trying to manage more than 25 crimes’ at once. Supervisors told inspectors ‘of their frustration at not having enough time to supervise their officers’. According to the report, the quality of investigations for neighbourhood crimes was generally poor, ‘and lines of enquiry weren’t always identified or pursued’.
While the Met can point to cases arising from the anti-immigrant unrest of recent weeks, dealt with and leading to court convictions within days, in other cases police are still appealing for help months after the crime or disorder, such as (to take examples of recent appeals on the Met’s website) arising from the FA Cup final in May; and the fatal crush at the Brixton Academy venue in south London, in December 2022, when two died, including security officer on duty Gaby Hutchinson; and a woman is still in hospital.
As for the Brixton crush, police say that hundreds of hours of CCTV have been examined, more than 500 witness statements taken and over 5,000 pieces of evidence seized. DCI Nigel Penney said: “We owe it to the families who have been left heartbroken and with many unanswered questions to establish the truth about what happened to their loved ones, and continue to follow the evidence where it takes us – without fear or favour. There were thousands of people at the venue that evening, and today I am releasing images of people I would like to speak to as I believe they have vital information. I urge them to get in touch as soon as possible.”
Sir Mark’s view
As the Met said in a report to the London Policing Board admitted in June, the force’s focus is ‘on tackling the most harmful offences and compared to our MSGs [Most Similar Forces] we perform well on most of these crime areas, such as violence with injury and sexual offences. This focus is a trade-off relative to our funding and resourcing position and differs from other forces who focus on volume crime and those crimes that matter most to local communities. Neighbourhood crimes, such as personal robbery, theft from the person and vehicle crime are key areas of challenge for the Met due to the extremely high volumes in the capital relative to the number of people and resources we can spread across our priorities.’
Likewise to the Board, the Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley admitted ‘some really deep systematic challenges to policing in London’. He spoke of ‘the stretch created by investigations like [the] Grenfell [Inquiry], which still has the best part of 200 officers and staff involved with it, and the Post Office Inquiry, which is building and which we are co-ordinating nationally’. Hence the need in his words for the force’s ‘prioritisation and focus …. on a narrower front than we would ideally want to do’.
Comments
London Assembly member Susan Hall, chairman of the Assembly’s Police and Crime Committee, and Conservative candidate for the London mayoral election in May, described the findings of the inspection as concerning, and said they highlight several key areas that require immediate improvement. She noted that out of eight graded areas, the Met Police was graded as “requires improvement” or “inadequate” in seven. She said: “The grading of investigating crime and managing offenders as “inadequate” will be particularly worrying for Londoners. This shows the sheer scale of the issues facing the Met Police, and how much work is left to do.” She added that the committee will question the Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime, Sophie Linden, and a representative of the Metropolitan Police in September.
HMIC Inspector of Constabulary Lee Freeman said: “The unique challenges facing the Metropolitan Police are not underestimated. Policing the capital city places additional strain on the force and its leadership, as the force tirelessly manages protests, state visits and royal occasions, and national and international sporting events.
“In parallel, the force is in the midst of an organisational-wide transformation, which is significant in both its size and scale. While it was evident in my inspection that many key changes have and are being made, they are not yet translating into consistent and sustained improvements in some key areas.
“While I commend the force for the progress it has made in answering the public’s calls quickly, I have serious concerns about how the force is currently investigating crime and how it manages offenders and suspects.
“I am aware that before our inspection, the force had already recognised the need to achieve better outcomes for victims. However, these plans have not yet led to consistent improvements across the whole force, and more work needs to be done to make sure that this happens.”
Photo by Mark Rowe: police on patrol, West Norwood, south London, spring.
