Commissioner's Report  

Report: 5
Date: 6 October 2008
By: the Commissioner

Summary

This report, prepared for the Full Authority meeting, summarises the progress of the Metropolitan Police Service against the objectives featured in the 2008 – 2011 Policing Plan for London.

The report covers the period between July and October 2008 with data for individual measures reflecting the 12-month period ending August 2008 unless stated otherwise. It is intended to highlight progress against corporate targets and identifies key operational activities that deliver a safer city for all London’s communities.

This report is the first of its kind to a substantially changed Police Authority. We would welcome feedback on content and format for future meetings.

A. Recommendation

That the report be received.

B. Supporting information

1. This is the first written report of its kind, which the Commissioner has been asked to provide to the MPA Full Authority. The report outlines progress by the Metropolitan Police Service in delivering its Policing Plan Objectives, and demonstrates how these provide a safer environment for the people of London. It is a factual report, which will be supplemented by an oral statement from the Commissioner.

2. The report outlines a number of areas of success for the Met which we hope that MPA members will note. Those successes, however, have to be weighed against the continuing challenge of the number of murders of young people in London and against the ever present threat of terrorism. Members will appreciate that this report cannot cover the variety of roles carried out by the MPS, however we will change our focus over a series of reports.

Explaining the structure of the report

3. The Commissioner’s Report has three sections: The introduction acknowledges the change in membership of the Police Authority, and is likely to be unique to the first report. This section provides information for new members of the Authority who have had limited opportunity to engage with the work of the Service.

4. The second section of the report focuses on what the MPS seeks to deliver to the people of London. It reviews our progress against the corporate objectives featured in the Policing Plan for London. For each objective we summarise progress to date and report on key initiatives relevant to this area.

5. The third section of the report focuses on organisational matters and how we are managing our business to ensure we are in the best possible position to deliver an effective service to the Capital.

Introduction

6. Our mission is Working Together for a Safer London and through the following strategic outcomes we are committed to ensuring that:

• Communities are engaged with, confident in and satisfied with our police service.
• Security is improved and the public feel reassured.
• Crime, disorder, vulnerability and harm are prevented and reduced.
• Offenders are brought to justice.

We deliver these outcomes to London by focusing on our corporate objectives, which are to:

• Make our services more accessible and improve people’s experience of their contact with us, especially victims and witnesses;
• Make our neighbourhoods safer through local and city-wide problem solving and partnership working to reduce crime, anti-social behaviour and road casualties;
• Reduce serious violence and protect young people;
• Disrupt more criminal networks and reduce the harm caused by drugs;
• Enhance our counter terrorism capability and capacity;
• Plan for, and effectively police, major events in London and prepare for the 2012 Olympics.

7. These corporate objectives are underpinned by our commitment to continuous improvement. This includes improving our leadership, the quality and management of our information, our productivity and ensuring we uphold our corporate responsibility.

8. Our activity to deliver against these objectives is detailed in the Policing Plan for London that was created in conjunction with the MPA. The objectives are not stand alone activity; for instance the connection between our neighbourhood teams and counter-terrorism work is a key part of our work, almost unique to London. We remain flexible and must also acknowledge that much of policing remains a response service and we are required to adapt our operational intervention to ensure we are tackling the right problems.

9. Our corporate objectives are developed through a comprehensive Corporate Strategic Assessment process. The process involves the capture and analysis of data from a wide range of internal and external sources including: population projections, crime trends, victim and citizen feedback. The MPS and MPA agree the corporate objectives, the supporting measures - the Critical Performance Areas [CPA] – and the associated targets. These are published annually within the Policing London Business Plan. A glossary of terms used within this report is attached at Appendix 1

10. Progress against the corporate objectives is tracked monthly via the MPSPerformance Board with the MPA represented on this Board. Progress has also been reported at the MPA’s regular Planning Performance and Review Committee.

Our delivery: performance and activity

OBJECTIVE: Make our services more accessible and improve people’s experience of their contact with us, especially victims and witnesses.

How we monitor our performance

11. We monitor our performance against this objective via two Critical Performance Areas [CPA] measures (see below). Both measures are statutory performance indicators [SPI] derived from a comprehensive survey of service users conducted by an independent market research company. The survey takes place on a continuous basis and captures recent experiences of victims of burglary, violent crime, vehicle crime, road traffic collisions and racist incidents.

Table 1 - Progress Summary Making our services more accessible

• Victim satisfaction with our overall service has remained broadly steady over the past two years. However, we are seeing improvements in satisfaction with components of our service delivery. Satisfaction with ease of contact by telephone is on a two-year improving trend up from 84% to 90% reflecting the significant investment in our corporate call handling system [C3i / CCC]. We are also seeing the first signs of improvement in satisfaction with victim follow-up following the roll-out of our Victim Focus Unit programme – units within each London Borough dedicated to updating victims of crime on the progress of their investigation.
• The satisfaction gap between white and minority ethnic victims at 4.2 points is ahead of the national average of 5.1 and the focus of ongoing research by the Home Office, NPIA and MPS to gain a greater understanding of the key drivers of satisfaction amongst different user groups.

Recent initiatives:

12. The MPS ‘Promise to Citizens’ will set out the level of service which can be expected by Londoners. The emerging content has been developed through research with London citizens and service users. The MPS Promise fulfils many of the requirements of the Government’s ‘Policing Pledge’ and goes further by explaining how we will deliver those services. The MPA are involved in the development of this work and proposals will be presented to Members in the future. As part of the Citizen Focus programme two phases of work are underway:

• Phase 1 – launch of the Met Non Emergency Contact Number (0300 123 1212) on 29 September. This is a single and memorable non emergency contact number.
• Phase 2 – establishment of a Customer Service Unit on 6 October. This unit will handle complaints of service failure, analyse user feedback and monitor organisational change in response to feedback.

OBJECTIVE: Make our neighbourhoods safer through local and city-wide problem solving and partnership working to reduce crime, anti-social behaviour and road casualties

How we monitor our performance

13. Our primary CPA measure for this objective is public confidence - a statutory performance indicator measured independently via the Home Office’s British Crime Survey [BCS]. The BCS is a long established continuous survey of UK residents conducted face-to-face in people’s homes. The limitations are that respondents are aged 17 and above and it does not capture business crime. In addition to capturing information on victimisation, the survey includes a very specific public confidence question ‘how good a job do you believe the police are doing in this local area?’

14. In addition to public confidence, we monitor progress using Home Office SPIs focused on the underlying serious acquisitive crime rate and our associated investigation performance – offenders brought to justice. Additionally, to assess the safety of our roads network across the capital, we use a very specific SPI - a count of the number of people killed or seriously injured in road traffic collisions relative to the number of vehicle kilometres travelled. This measure enables the HO to compare and contrast performance across forces with different traffic densities.

Table 2 - Progress Summary Making our neighbourhoods safer

• Confidence in local policing for the year-ending March 2008 stands at 55.2% - up from 48% during 2002/03. The MPS is ranked first within the Home Office’s most similar family of forces [MSF – consists of Greater Manchester, West Midlands and West Yorkshire] and 16th compared to all forces in England & Wales. The improvement, in part, reflects the considerable investment in Safer Neighbourhood Policing.
• The serious acquisitive crime rate is on a long-term improving trend, down 25% over the last five years and we are currently on-track to deliver against our year-end target of a 4 percent year-on-year reduction.
• Our sanction detection rate for serious acquisitive crime at 11.2% is marginally down on the year-end target reflecting a lower number of burglary offences taken into consideration [TICs] during the current year. The MPS is ranked second within the MSF.
• Over the rolling year to June 2008 there has been a 6.7% reduction in the number of people killed or seriously injured in road traffic collisions per 100 million vehicle km travelled.

Recent initiatives

15. The MPS has established a process for every Safer Neighbourhood Team (SNT) to produce a 6-monthly local newsletter that provides information about the work they are doing to address community priorities, along with contact information, details of events, crime prevention advice and much more. This will ensure every SNT produces a regular quality newsletter from the Met police that contains information people want to know in a format they want to receive. These will be delivered to every household across the MPS, with the first delivery in October 2008.

16. Neighbourhood Policing has been the subject of a recent HMIC inspection. It was reported that the MPS “… is meeting the standard and actively leading the field….The MPS is deploying across all its BOCUs the right people in the right place at the right time to ensure that its neighbourhoods are appropriately staffed ”. The full report is available on the HMIC Internet site.

17. To improve the safety of our transport system we have, in partnership with TfL and with the full support of the Mayor, launched Operation Tyrol a crime, disorder and public reassurance initiative that focuses on the journey to home, work and school. The Operation is in place on three Boroughs – Croydon, Newham and Haringey. It is being supported locally by the Safer Transport Teams, Transport Operational Command Unit (TOCU) and Safer Neighbourhood Teams, and centrally by Metropolitan Special Constables. Operation Tyrol has seen a reduction in crime of 17% (250 crimes) at the specific hub locations over a three-month period in 2008 compared to the corresponding period in 2007.

18. With the support of the Mayor, the MPS crime mapping website went live at the beginning of September. The website provides a set of interactive maps showing crime numbers and rates together with links to other sites including Safer Neighbourhoods. The site also compares the crime levels in local neighbourhoods to the London average. Going forward, further crime categories will be added in a phased approach, alongside a continuing public consultation exercise.

Objective: Reduce serious violence and protect young people

How we monitor our performance

19. We monitor our performance against this objective using a combination of Home Office SPIs and internal MPS metrics. The SPIs also feature within the new national Assessment of Policing and Community Safety framework [APACS] introduced in April 2008.

Table 3 - Progress Summary Reducing serious violence and protecting young people

We are making steady progress against all the serious crime reduction measures:

• Most Serious Violence and Assault With Injury reduced by 3.5% (2,684 offences) over the rolling year to Aug-08). The MPS is ranked 1st in its MSF group for the rolling-year to Jun-08 (latest comparable data published by the HO).
• Against the new Home Office gun crime definition, we have seen a year-on-year reduction of over 22.6% at the end of August 2008. This reduction has been achieved through a series of proactive initiatives including intelligence-led interventions at identified hot spots.
• The combined sanction detection rate for most serious violence and serious sexual offences is 31.6% for the rolling year to Aug 2008.
• The Domestic Violence offence arrest for the rolling year to Aug-08 is 66.4%, against a target for of 67%. The target rate is however being met over the YTD, with Apr – Aug 2008 performance at 68.1%.
• For the period Apr to Aug 2008, the number of under 20 year olds becoming victims of violence decreased by 4.5% (432 victims) compared to the corresponding period in 2007. (Rolling year comparisons are not possible due to a change of measure definition). This reduction is marginally adrift of the year-end target of a 6% reduction.

Recent Initiatives:

20. The challenge facing London in relation to knife crime is acknowledged to be substantial and complex. Operation Blunt 2 forms a key component of our Serious Violence Strategy. Blunt 2 is designed to address the unacceptable levels of youth violence and knife related crime across the capital. The operation includes greater use of stop and search powers, knife arches deployed at key locations, increased patrols in public areas where weapons are known to be a problem and neighbourhood weapon sweeps. Against the new 2008/09 Home Office definition, we have seen a 9.1% reduction in knife crime during the period April to August 2008 compared to the corresponding period in 2007.

21. We are very clear that we will not be able to achieve sustainable reductions in youth violence by enforcement alone and continue to welcome the support of the Mayor and the MPA to tackle the broader issues. Safer Schools Partnership is a core element in our response to knife crime - working with schools to reduce risk. We have now installed Safer Schools Officers in 185 high priority schools and 59 Pupil Referral Units across London. We are also working with the medical profession on the information and intelligence that we can glean from A&E departments. We have also received £9.8m funding over two years for 14 boroughs under the Home Office Youth Crime Action Plan which we will be investing in partnership working on this critical issue.

Objective:

How we monitor our performance

22. In the absence of nationally defined SPIs, we monitor our performance using a combination of internal measures. The measures attract some very specific terminology and definitions:

• Criminal network: a network of individuals involved in ongoing criminal activity for some form of personal gain (usually profit, but can also be for social standing).
• Harm: where the consequence of pursuing an activity is seen to have an adverse effect on the social, physical or economic well being of individuals or a community.
• Disruption: a disruption has been achieved when a network is unable to operate at its normal level of activity for a significant amount of time.

Table 4 - Progress Summary Disrupting criminal networks and reducing the harm caused by drugs

• We are making good progress in disrupting criminal networks – achieving 30 network disruptions each month through the deployment of proactive teams acting on intelligence.
• We are also close to target for the number of cases where assets are seized. The value of assets identified by court order for seizure for the first three months of the year (Apr - June 08) is £5.4m. With the emerging results from Operation Rize, detailed below, the seizures will make a major contribution toward the year end target of £42 million.
• The number of sanction detections for trafficking shows a small increase on the corresponding period last year.
• There has been an improvement in sanction detections for Class A drugs and cocaine and heroin individually compared to the corresponding period ending August 2007 (monthly averages of 205, 130 and 39 respectively).

Recent Initiatives:

23. There have been a number of initiatives this year aimed at disrupting youth and gang related violence such as Operation Alliance on 5 boroughs in south-east London. This was established to sustain reductions in gang related violence, the removal of criminal gangs and the establishment of a partnership based approach to prevent further youth involvement in gang related violence. In June, MPS officers undertook a co-ordinated intelligence-led raid (Operation Rize) on several safe deposit businesses and personal addresses to recover stolen property and cash. Operation Rize was one of the MPS’ largest ever seizure operations, with more than £53m cash seized.

Operation Crackdown is designed to identify, disrupt and stop the illicit drug supply that causes fear and harm in London's communities. It focuses on Class 'A' drug dealers and carries out intelligence-led operations at borough level culminating in arrests and the confiscation and destruction of drugs, along with the closure of crack houses. From October 2007 to June this year, the MPS closed 703 Crack houses.

Objective: Enhance our counter terrorism capability and capacity

How we monitor our performance

24. There are no nationally defined SPIs for this corporate objective. Clearly, the sensitive nature of counter-terrorism work would make it impossible to report publicly.

25. The MPS Counter Terrorism (CT) Strategy, which reflects the four strands of the Government’s CONTEST strategy - Prevent, Pursue, Protect and Prepare - was reported to the MPA and discussed at the July 2008 Full Authority. It was also discussed at the newly formed MPA/MPS CT Oversight committee, chaired by Lord Toby Harris.

Progress Summary

26. Terrorism and domestic extremism present a significant and enduring threat to the United Kingdom. Recent attacks and planned attacks, including those in Glasgow and London, graphically demonstrate the devastating effect that terrorism has on communities and individuals going about their daily lives. The MPS Counter-terrorism strategy provides a vision and co-ordination for our activity.

27. Whilst the focus of our strategy is narrow, to reduce the risk from international terrorism and domestic extremism, the policing activity that supports it is broad. The strategy identifies four key aims: To stop people becoming or supporting terrorists or violent extremists (Prevent); To stop terrorist attacks through detecting, investigating and disrupting terrorists and their networks (Pursue); To strengthen our overall protection against terrorist attacks (Protect); To mitigate the impact of terrorist attacks where we cannot stop them (Prepare).

28. Working alone or in partnership, our effort includes preventing or disrupting terrorist activity, providing protection against attacks and mitigating impact through effective planning and preparation. During the 2007/8 fiscal year, following investigations led by the MPS Counter Terrorism Command, over 40 people were convicted of terrorist-related offences with total sentences imposed exceeding 600 years. Significantly, 22 of these pleaded guilty. We aim to build on these successes.

29. Significant effort will be focussed on embedding Prevent activity into neighbourhood policing, targeting the four priority boroughs of Tower Hamlets, Waltham Forest, Newham and Hounslow. The Channel Project, a multi-agency police-led scheme that diverts people away from violent extremism through local activity, is currently running in Lambeth and Waltham Forest.

Objective: Plan for, and effectively police, major events in London and prepare for the 2012 Olympics

How we monitor our performance

30. There are no SPIs for this corporate objective, although the MPA maintain oversight of this area. The MPS is responsible for coordinating the activities needed to deliver the Olympic Security Programme and the Security Strategy for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. This includes responsibility for the strategic and operational planning of the security of the Games and for overseeing the delivery of this during the event period. The MPS also reports on progress for this planning to the OSSSG within the Home Office.

Progress summary

31. Our approach to planning the security of 2012 runs through a cycle from intelligence and scenario testing to programmes and operations, with eight main themes that feed activity in the lead up to 2012: Identity assurance, Site and venue security, CONTEST, Operational planning and consequence management, Specialist and human resources, Command and control, Transport and community engagement.

32. In planning for the Games we will develop a concept of operations that respects competitors, visitors and London’s communities alike, that fosters safety and security and provides reassurance. In the run up to the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games we will streamline the processes for the management of large scale and prestige events, building on our existing expertise and capability to deal with the increasing number of events expected over this period.

Public Order Events in London

33. The MPS polices over 6,000 public order events every year. The most recent high-profile event was the 44th Notting Hill Carnival. The MPS built on the success achieved last year with a more intrusive style of policing. We increased our use of stop and search, screening wands and Dog Support Unit officers. In addition, there were significant intelligence-led deployments which prevented and deterred criminals from even getting to the event. One example of this was the detention of over 150 people at the Oval after we received information that they were going to Carnival to commit crime and disorder. There were no reported stabbings or shootings at Carnival this year. Community support for our approach was very clear.

OUR ORGANISATION: MANAGING THE BUSINESS

34. The MPS is a large organisation with a gross expenditure of £3.56bn and a workforce of just under 50,000 at the end of August, supported by 3,800 volunteers which includes 2,500 Special Constables.

Continuous Improvement

35. To achieve our mission, we are committed to embedding continuous improvement processed that promote incremental advances in service delivery, encouraging everyone to support organisational change in line with our values. The Service is also engaged in a number of change programmes such as Transforming HR. The Service has a good record on delivering efficiencies and key areas we are currently focussing on are;

• Improving the quality and management of our information and data and our staff’s access to it.
• Further improving our leadership and people skills across the MPS.
• Improving our productivity.
• Delivering sustainable development, equalities and health improvements.

36. The MPS Leadership Academy is a key component of this work enhancing the skills of our managers, in particular, to get the best from the financial and people resources under their command. Bespoke values based leadership programmes seek to improve the quality of interactions between our staff, partners and members of the public.

Our People

37. In 2007/08, there was a significant growth in police officer numbers to a record strength of 31,398. At the end of March 2008, BME officers accounted for 8.2% of the work force and females 21.4%. This compares with 3.4% and 15.2% ten years ago, with recruitment, as of 21 September 2008, running at 16.3% and 35% respectively.

38. The target strength for police officers for March 2009 is 32,930 and at the end of August the strength was 31,388. We are still on course to meet the target end of year strength. We are also seeking to achieve a minimum 20% BME representation within each new intake to continue this positive trend.

Complaints and Discipline

39. We expect the highest standard of professionalism and behaviours at all times from our officers and staff and any allegation that the conduct of our officers has fallen below this standard is treated extremely seriously.

40. Police Complaints Statistics for England & Wales 2007/08, published by the Independent Police Complaints Commission on the 25 September, show the number of complaints recorded against the MPS (5,349) has fallen by three percent compared to 2006/07. This compares favourably with a national picture of no change between 2006/07 and 2007/08. It should be noted that a high proportion of complaints (35%) are resolved locally. Of those requiring an investigation, only 5 percent (130) were found substantiated which is lower than the national average of 11 percent.

Our Business Planning and Budget

41. The Service is well advanced on the preparation of its 2009-12 budget and business plan. The Mayor published his budget guidance on 22 July 2008 and the MPA/MPS has been asked to prepare its budget within the following guidelines and assumptions.

• For 2009/10 increases in net revenue expenditure of 1.75% over the 2008/09 amount of £2,595m presented in the Mayor’s published budget and annual increase of 1.25% in 2010/11 and 2011/12.
• There is no addition to the GLA council tax precept for Olympic security costs.
• Alternative options be prepared on the assumption to increase net revenue expenditure in 2009/10 over 2008/09 of 0.25% or less than the above guidelines including the impact on service levels over the three years.

The Service is, therefore, preparing its budget, in consultation with the Authority, on the following basis:

Table 5 - Basis for the 2009-12 budget

42. The Authority, at a joint meeting of the Finance and Planning, Performance Review Committee on 18 September 2008, agreed the Authority’s interim budget submission. Based on the work undertaken to date, the overall financial position at stated in the submission identifies a current budget gap of £76m in 2009/10 rising to £177m in 2011/12 against the Mayor’s guidance. The Service is working with the Authority to close this gap before the submission of the draft budget and business plan by 27 November 2008.

Glossary of Terms

APACS

Assessment of Policing and Community Safety – performance management framework which will provide the Home Office and its partners with the capability to monitor and assess performance in policing and community safety

BCS

British Crime Survey – a long established Home Office managed survey designed to capture levels of crime and public attitudes to crime as well as other criminal justice issues. The results play an important role in informing Government policy. The survey captures the views of approximately 48,000 citizens across England & Wales annually – approximately 3,000 within London. Survey results are published quarterly and relate to a rolling 12 month period.

C3i

Command Control Communication & Information – the Programme to modernise the MPS’ call handling and despatch system for 999 and non-999 calls from the public. C3i has now been absorbed into business as usual within the MPS’ Central Communications Command

CCC

Central Communications Command – the operational unit responsible for answering calls from the public, despatching officers to incidents and managing special operations.

CPA

Critical Performance Areas - the suite of MPS corporate measures used to track progress against the delivery of corporate objectives

CT

Counter Terrorism

FPN

Fixed penalty notice

HO

Home Office

IPCC

Independent Police Complaints Commission

MPA

Metropolitan Police Authority

MPS

Metropolitan Police Service

NPIA

 National Police Improvement Agency

Sanction detection [SD]

A police generated detections of a crime. SDs include charges, cautions, fixed penalty notices [FPN], taken into considerations [TIC], summons and cannabis warnings

Serious acquisitive crime

Includes residential robbery, burglary and motor vehicle crime.

SPI

Statutory Performance Indicator

TIC

Taken into consideration –the clear up of multiple crimes attributable committed by one criminal e.g. multiple burglaries

Victim Focus Units

Units located in every MPS Borough dedicated to updating victims of crime on the progress of their investigations in-line with the Victim Code of Practice

C. Race and equality impact

There are no specific race and equality implications arising directly from this report. However, there are key areas of specific activity in relation to equalities which demonstrate our commitment to diversity and are essential to the success of the MPS. These include improving the quality of service provided to victims of hate crime, ensuring that a consistent and effective service is provided to London’s diverse communities; improving performance against domestic violence, ensuring a consistent level of service across all communities and minimising disproportionality issues; increasing community trust and confidence in the police use of stop and search ensuring it is used fairly and proportionately; continuing to develop a workforce that reflects the diversity of London and improving the progression of women within the police service.

D. Financial implications

The key financial implications are set out in paragraphs 41 and 42 of the report.

E. Background papers

None

F. Contact details

Report author(s): Director of Business Strategy, Michael Debens

For more information contact:

MPA general: 020 7202 0202
Media enquiries: 020 7202 0217/18

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