Minutes

Minutes of the meeting of the Metropolitan Police Authority held on 26 February 2004 at 10 Dean Farrar Street, London, SW1H 0NY.

Present

Members

• Toby Harris (Chair)
• Richard Barnes (Deputy Chair)
• R. David Muir (Deputy Chair)
• Tony Arbour
• Jennette Arnold
• Reshard Auladin
• Cindy Butts
• Lynne Featherstone
• Kirsten Hearn
• Peter Herbert
• Elizabeth Howlett
• Diana Johnson
• Jenny Jones
• Nicholas Long
• Noel Lynch
• Eric Ollerenshaw
• Sir John Quinton
• Richard Sumray
• Graham Tope
• Abdal Ullah
• Rachel Whittaker
• Cecile Wright

MPA officers

• Catherine Crawford (Clerk)
•  Ken Hunt (Deputy Treasurer)
• Simon Vile (Head of Secretariat)

MPS officers

• Sir John Stevens (Commissioner)
• Sir Ian Blair (Deputy Commissioner)
• Tim Godwin (Assistant Commissioner)
• Bernard Hogan-Howe (Assistant Commissioner)
• Carole Howlett (Deputy Assistant Commissioner)

Part 1

79. Apologies for absence

(Agenda item 1)

Apologies for absence were received from Nicky Gavron.

80. Declarations of interest

(Agenda item 2)

No declarations made.

81. Minutes

(Agenda item 3)

Resolved – That the minutes of the meeting of the Authority held on 29 January 2004 be confirmed and signed as a correct record.

82. Question to the Authority

(Agenda item 4)

The Authority received a question from Ms Pauline Bowers as follows:

“Given the prominence and importance of the question of racial tension not only within communities but between different sections of the community and the police, what is the MPA position or policy concerning this, in particular with reference to the work of local Community Police Consultative Groups.”

The Clerk responded on behalf of the Authority as follows:

“From its very first days, the Authority has regarded the need to improve community confidence in policing as one of its fundamental responsibilities. The Authority also has a specific statutory duty under the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 to have regard to the need to promote good race relations. The Race Equality Scheme, published in 2002 as required by that Act, sets out the Authority’s commitment and plans to meet its duty.

In relation to the work of local CPCGs there are specific actions set out in the Race Equality Scheme Action Plan. The Authority has introduced a new funding regime for CPCGs for the year 2004/5. The guidelines for funding, which were issued to all CPCGs with their application form for funding, make it clear that the Groups must work to strengthen positive community and police relations, respect and value for the borough’s diverse character and informed community engagement in the policing of the borough.

It is clear from the appraisal of applications for funding for 2004/5 (which will be reported to the Consultation Committee on 18 March) that there is much good practice on the part of individual CPCGs but that in some boroughs the commitment to diversity and community relations appears less well developed. This makes it important that good practice should be more widely disseminated across the CPCG network. The Authority intends to work with CPCGs, through the Forum of London CPCG Chairs, to put in place a programme of training and development to spread good practice and to assist and strengthen the work of CPCGs with regard this and other issues.”

83. Minutes of committees

(Agenda item 5)

The minutes of the following committees were received:

• Human Resources, 8 January
• Co-ordination & Policing, 23 January and 6 February

Resolved – That the minutes be noted.

84. Chair’s, Members’ and Clerk’s updates

(Agenda item 6)

The Authority noted updates from the Chair and other members.

Jenny Jones referred to a cycling awards ceremony for emergency services that she had attended. It was

Resolved – That a position report be presented to a future meeting on the use of bicycles by the MPS, what the practice is across boroughs and any issues with regard to training and equipment.

85. Commissioner’s update

(Agenda item 7)

The Commissioner gave an oral update on a number of issues, including:

Police stations

The Commissioner corrected recent press misreporting of the ‘Building Towards the Safest City’ strategy. He said that there were no plans to close police stations in London without opening replacements that better suited policing in the 21st century.

Members expressed their concern at the way the press launch had been handled, in particular the use of an external PR agency and the lack of advance warning for members of the launch.

Performance data

Crime in London was continuing to fall with, for instance, commercial robbery down 33% and detection rates for all offences up to 15%. At 94.7% the MPS’s homicide clear up rate was the best in the world.

Richard Sumray commented that more work was needed to understand the relationship between increasing police numbers and crime / detection figures. He also pointed to the variations between boroughs and asked what was being done to understand the reasons for these differences and to share good practice. The Commissioner agreed and said that there would be rigorous monitoring of the Step Change Programme implementation both in terms of crime figures and public satisfaction.

Counter terrorism

The MPS was maintaining its high level of concern in relation to the overall threat level.

The British Government had now confirmed that five British males detained at Guantanamo Bay were to be returned home on some as yet unspecified date. There would be considerable liaison between anti-terrorist branch officers and the Crown Prosecution Service. Peter Herbert urged caution about any decision to arrest on their return, as an arrest without evidence could lead to civil action against the MPS and the Authority.

The Commissioner viewed contact between the British and Libyan Governments as a positive step. The investigation in to the murder of PC Yvonne Fletcher remained active and if necessary officers would go to Libya to pursue it.

Safety Cameras etc

The MPS’s position was that cameras should be used to lower accident rates not to raise revenue. The London Safety Camera Partnership was not intending to reduce the number of cameras but to redeploy some to accident hotspots.

In reply to a question from Jenny Jones, the Commissioner said that the traffic police budgeted workforce target (BWT) was 686, the current strength was 651 with seven further officers awaiting a transfer date. Another 55 officers were awaiting interview and the aim was to achieve BWT by the Spring.

Jenny Jones understood that elsewhere in the country the trigger for the installation of a safety camera was three deaths at a particular location, whereas in London the trigger was four deaths. The Commissioner did not think that this was in fact the case but said that this would be checked and Jenny Jones informed.

A.C. Godwin undertook to circulate information to members about the MPS guidance on the offence of using mobile phones while driving and statistics on the number of penalty notices issued so far.

Response times

The Commissioner commented that there had understandably been a focus on MPS response times, particularly in relation to variations between boroughs. There was a need to better understand the reasons for this and a more sophisticated measurement system was being developed. He also referred to the continued need for public education, given that only 20% of 999 calls actually required an emergency response.

Members commented that it was not clear why performance had deteriorated when police numbers in boroughs had increased. There was also a need to for more information about response times beyond the 12 minute target. A standardised grading system would help to ensure a common format. The Deputy Commissioner responded that he would report back to the Authority or the Planning, Performance and Review Committee on issues around the worst cases of slow response. His long-term vision was to be able respond with the nearest vehicle regardless of whether they were from the same borough OCU.

Public order

The Commissioner reported that the High Court had ruled illegal the arrests made by Gloucestershire Constabulary at RAF Fairford. The MPS were considering the implications of this judgement.

Cindy Butts repeated her call for a review of the Public Order Act to enable the police to ban marches which targeted minority communities and incited racial hatred.

Shooting on Kingston Bridge

Tony Arbour referred to the shooting on 10 February which had led to the closure of Kingston Bridge for a number of hours. The Commissioner said that the MPS would give members a detailed report on this incident.

86. Targets for Policing and Performance Plan 2004/05

(Agenda item 8)

The Authority considered a report on the proposed targets, objectives and measures in the Plan. A report on business group key objectives was also tabled.

Richard Sumray commented that there was still terminological confusion between some of the Home Office and MPS terms. This caused problems in being able to compare performance with that of other constabularies. He suggested that until common agreement on terms was achieved performance data should be produced on a dual basis wherever definitions varied. He also remained concerned that there were no targets for offenders brought to justice. He commented that further discussion was needed about how boroughs developed their targets, as there was some variation in degree of detail produced by individual boroughs. Some of the business group targets were PSA targets and would, therefore, need to be closely monitored.

Referring to objectives 6 and 8, Lynne Featherstone considered that it was important to have targets for customer satisfaction. The Deputy Commissioner said that thought would be given to whether this was possible.

David Muir asked for information on the proportion of gun crimes that involved the use of converted replica guns.

Resolved –

1. That the proposed targets and measures to support the plan objectives be agreed; and
2. To note the bespoke target setting process undertaken by Territorial Policing.

87. Gun Crime Scrutiny

(Agenda item 9)

The Authority considered the final report of this scrutiny. The Commissioner and members welcomed the report and congratulated Cindy Butts, the panel Chair, on it.

Cindy Butts referred in particular to the need to co-ordinate better work on gun crime and drugs. The close involvement of local authorities was also vital as evidenced by recent raids on crack houses in a number of boroughs. With the exception of Hackney, all these crack houses were open again the following day. She also suggested that local police officers should be trained on the recovery of criminal assets, particularly in the light of Government plans to feed confiscated assets back into the community. In conclusion she said that 80% of Black males involved in gun crime were British born – this was a homegrown, not imported, problem and needed to be addressed as such.

Resolved –

1. That the recommendations of the final report be approved; and
2. That a progress report on the implementation of the recommendations be submitted in six months time.

88. Initial Performance Assessment (IPA) of the MPA

(Agenda item 10)

The Authority considered a report requesting approval to the final draft of this self-assessment document, for submission to the Audit Commission as part of the IPA process.

Resolved –

1. That the self-assessment document be approved; and
2. That a session of the Co-ordination & Policing Committee be arranged for a more detailed discussion of the self-assessment and the peer challenge findings. This could then inform a full Authority meeting looking back over the first MPA term and forward to the next.

89. Action taken under delegated authority

(Agenda item 11)

The Authority noted a report of action taken by the Clerk under delegated authority.

The meeting ended at 12.30 p.m.

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