Commissioner’s report

Report: 6
Date: 28 January 2010
By: the Commissioner

Summary

This report summarises the progress of the Metropolitan Police Service against the objectives featured in the Policing London 2009 – 2012 Business Plan.

This report covers initiatives and activities that occurred in October, November and December 2009. Unless otherwise stated, the data and the indicators in the tables reflect the rolling year to 30 November 2009 and references to the financial year to date (FYTD) are for the period April to November in 2009/10. It is intended to highlight progress against corporate targets and identifies key operational activities that deliver a safer city for all London’s communities.

A. Recommendation

That the report be received.

B. Supporting information

1. This report provides updates on performance against the corporate objectives featured in the Policing London Business Plan. For each objective we summarise progress and report on key initiatives. For ease of reference a summary table giving an overview of performance is attached at Appendix 1 with a green (G), amber (A), red (R) assessment against the Critical Performance Areas (CPAs) under each objective.

Our Delivery: performance and activity

Confidence

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

Progress summary - quarterly data - unchanged since last report

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

Progress summary

• The decrease in serious acquisitive crime (SAQ) for the FYTD at 2.5% / 3,357 offences is less than that above for the rolling year, but it is now on track to meet the 2009/10 reduction target of 2%. That was not the case in the previous report where SAQ had only gone down by 1.3% for the first six months of the FYTD.
• A drop of almost 10% (7,081 offences/ 9.6%) in motor vehicle crime has been behind that SAQ reduction. Residential burglary unfortunately has risen by 3,574 offences/ 9.7% FYTD. However the rise between October and November, when the clocks change, was only 4% this year compared to 13% in 2008. The figure for residential burglary for December is very encouraging because it is 11% lower than it was in December 2008 but the FYTD is still showing an increase of 6.7%.

Recent operations

2. The activities of Operation Bumblebee have led to the arrest of 164 burglars between 18 October and mid-December. Those arrests are part of the work under Bumblebee to help boroughs fight burglary as reported to the November meeting. The Bumblebee Task Force has moved on from Hillingdon to Croydon where it has achieved 190 arrests for all offences that resulted in 61 people under investigation and 85 charges of which 26 were for burglary.

3. The TP Payback and Asset Confiscation Enforcement Unit is a key contributor to Operation Bumblebee. The unit carried out Operation Hirst against a four person team committing residential burglaries in Harrow. The gang were arrested and are in custody awaiting trial. Money held in accounts and vehicles owned by defendants were restrained and £4,500 found on the gang forfeited at the Magistrates Court. The wife of one of the defendants has been arrested and is on bail for laundering the proceeds of their crimes.

4. The National Mobile Phone Crime Unit conducted a pro-active operation at a concert by The Specials in November at the Hammersmith Apollo as a response to the rise in large organised thefts of mobile phones at concert venues. Six men were arrested with over 50 phones stolen at the venue. They were charged with conspiracy and 25 other offences and are still in custody.

5. On 20 November SO organised a joint operation at Heathrow, targeting illegal taxis as part of the process to integrate counter terrorism security work with MPS “business as usual”. The MPS worked with partner agencies and local councils from across three counties. 390 vehicles were stopped, and over 90 drivers were reported for various offences. Dangerous and uninsured vehicles were seized, unpaid fines recovered and numerous licensing infringements dealt with.

6. The Directorate of Information (DoI) in partnership with Transport OCU provided MPS technology to the Surface Transport and Traffic Operations Centre. The centre is London’s new traffic control centre and brings together all the control rooms with a strategic overview of surface transport and traffic in London. It will revolutionise the way the MPS and partners manage London’s strategic road network. It will also equip colleagues in special operations rooms with critical intelligence to assist in the management of large-scale events, particularly the 2012 London Olympics.

Objective: Reduce serious violence and protect young people

Progress summary

• While MSV for the financial year to date is off target, November had the third lowest monthly figure since records began in April 2008.
• The target for knife crime reduction is being met for the rolling 12 months but the reduction for the financial year to date is 4.2% / 364 offences, suggesting that the target may not be met. The last three months have had fluctuations of around 10% / 100+ offences each month.
• Enhanced recording of serious sexual offences since April 2009 is probably responsible in part for the fact that the target SD rate is not being met. The Commissioner will make some preliminary comments on this issue at this meeting. A report is scheduled to go to the 4 March meeting of the Strategic & Operational Policing Committee on the extent to which the rise in rape is due to more/better reporting.
• There will be a new working group reporting to the LCJB and chaired by a senior MPS officer, that will look at ways to improve the number of serious sexual offences which proceed through the criminal justice system to trial. The focus of SCD2 in the future will be on reducing the attrition of those cases and increasing the number of them that reach trial.

Recent initiatives

7. Operation Farandine was launched by the Southwark Gangs, Drugs and Firearms team to combat serious violence and criminal networks on estates in Southwark. The team concentrated on disrupting the drug supply networks that were at the centre of criminality on the estates. They gathered evidence over many months this year and with support from the TSG searched over 25 properties in November.

8. As a result 30 people were arrested. Of these, 23 were remanded in custody and charged with 187 offences while 5 others were bailed to return pending police enquiries. The police seized 2kgs of cocaine and heroin, £35K in cash, 2 cars, other valuable items and a number of weapons. 4 supply networks dealing in Class A drugs have been put out of business and two properties used for drug supply have been returned to the local authority.

9. The Operation Blunt 2 Task Force has been augmented by two TSG units. In November they arrested 240 people and seized 28 weapons. Maintaining the confidence of young people has been critical to the Task Force’s activities, especially the use of search powers. The Force is working with the charity, Groundwork, to engage with young people on issues such as the police work to protect them from violence and knife crime. This engagement work is now a routine element of the Task Force’s operations.

10. As part of Operation Athena, MPS officers on 27 November made 322 arrests across London. The operation was targeted at the perpetrators of domestic & interfamilial violence, hate crime and other forms of violence. Amongst those arrested were:

• 22 suspected of serious offences against female children;
• 267 people for domestic violence offences including 11 for GBH, 2 for sexual assaults and 50 for ABH; and
• 33 targeted hate crime offenders for robbery, assault and public order.

The raids were accompanied by measures to raise awareness and reporting of domestic violence and hate crime by leafleting, distributing information on reporting such crimes to/through third parties and work to improve the service to crime victims with disabilities.

Operation Athena days have taken place since 2000 with two days a year since 2006. In May 2009 the day resulted in 292 arrests including ones for rape, serious sexual and physical assaults, harassment and criminal damage.

11. Under Operation Artemis, the MIB Fugitive Team, responsible for pursuing wanted offenders, has arrested 99 wanted offenders for serious crime since January 2008 (14 in past 3 months). Over 9 months each borough was invited to provide attachments, to work with Artemis and locate their borough’s most wanted offenders. On return to their BOCU those attached were able to share their learning and skills with local staff.

12. Operation Safe Bus took place in the autumn to address peaks in crime and anti-social behaviour. Safer Transport Teams and Hub Teams carried out more high visibility patrols on the bus network and at key transport hubs. The work was planned in conjunction with the Operation Blunt team and in support of ‘Autumn Nights’.

13. Joint MPS/BTP working also took place on key dates at the transport hub locations of Brixton Rd, Stratford, Romford and Lewisham Travel Interchange. The Safer Transport Command Reassurance Teams also assisted as did the Safer Transport Command Tasking Teams. The operation resulted in 549 arrests including 20 for knife crime as well as 26 weapon seizures and the collection of intelligence. Most important of all, crime on the bus network (initial allegations) so far appears to have reduced.

Recent Operations and Trials

Violence

14. Operation SHAAMIT was an intelligence led operation against a man involved in the conversion of blank firing MAC 10 machine guns. He was believed to have gone to India and was arrested on his return to the UK. He was found to be in possession of 6 kilos of cocaine and was sentenced to 6 yrs 4 mths imprisonment for supplying Class A drugs.

15. Operation Trident secured the convictions at the Central Criminal Court of two brothers Derrell Callender, and Dwight Callender aged 20 and 23 for attempted murder of a 17 year-old boy and a 19-year old man.

Sexual Offences

16. In November guilty verdicts were obtained in two historic rape cases, one of which involved two rapes, and one indecent assault case by the Cold Case Review Team.

17. The MIB Serious Sexual Offences desk was involved in identifying and compiling analysis regarding Operation Daphne, three linked series of aggravated burglaries involving sexual offences. This series was identified through research of crime types and tasked to SCD1 to investigate. A man was arrested, and found guilty of two counts each of robbery, unlawful imprisonment, ABH and theft.

18. During December the Clubs and Vice Unit lead on a major operation to disrupt London’s vice trade. Codenamed ‘Cashleen’, the three day blitz centred on ‘carders’ who place cards advertising brothels in telephone boxes across London. This year, over 400,000 cards have been seized by Metropolitan Police Service officers. Officers are focusing on Westminster, Camden, Kensington and Chelsea and Lambeth because of the high number of complaints received.

Objective: Disrupt more criminal networks and reduce the harm caused by drugs

Progress summary

• The SD targets for overall numbers of Class A drug trafficking and those for cocaine related SDs are unlikely to be met because of the need to realign resources to cover other priorities. There has been an average of 171 overall Class A SDs for the last three months vs. a monthly target of at least 210, while for cocaine the three monthly average is 116 against a monthly target of 125.

Recent Operations and Trials

19. The MPS was part of a joint operation with the Spanish National Police, SOCA and the Maritime Analysis and Operations Centre that seized a ship off the coast of Northern Spain coming from the West Indies. The 150ft ship had a cargo of 1.5 tonnes of cocaine with an estimated street value of £375 million pounds most of which was destined for London. A number of arrests have been made.

20. The capture of the ship by Spanish National Police was the culmination of a proactive operation led by officers from the MPS's Central Task Force supported by MIB and SOCA. That operation is focused on a gang of experienced criminals dealing in Class A drugs on a large scale and in laundering the multi-million pound proceeds. Their activities stretch from London to Spain to the Caribbean and Columbia.

21. The MPS’s Central e-Crime Unit have made Europe’s first arrests in the battle against an online ‘Trojan’ virus, which threatened to compromise thousands of UK computers. The ZeuS or Zbot Trojan is believed to have infected and subsequently accessed personal information (including financial) from tens of thousands of computers around the world with very substantial potential losses to individuals and institutions. On 3 November 2009 officers from the e-Crime Unit with Greater Manchester Police, arrested a 20-year-old man and woman in Manchester for fraud and misuse of a computer offences. They are bailed until March 2010 pending further enquiries.

22. The e-Crime Unit took down 1,219 scam websites on December 3rd as part of Operation Papworth. The websites were run by organized criminal networks. They purported to sell designer items at bargain prices but shoppers ended up with either nothing at all or counterfeit products. Victims also ran the potential risk of the criminals stealing their identity for misuse elsewhere. The websites are thought to have generated millions of pounds for the networks.

23. A fraudster who e-mailed his victims telling them they had won the lottery and then asked for money for administrative fees was ordered to pay over £745,000 with six months to pay and a default sentence of five years. The emails also said that the company was endorsed by the MPS and MPA.

Objective: Enhance our counter terrorism capability and capacity

How we monitor our performance

24. The MPS continues to report its performance in relation to counter-terrorism to the MPA/MPS Counter Terrorism Protective Services Sub-committee, chaired by Lord Toby Harris.

25. Since the last report to the Authority significant concerns have been raised in the media and other quarters about the use of s44 TACT 2000 (counter terrorism stop & search powers) in particular in relation to the taking of photographs. To counter this, clear and unequivocal guidance has been issued to all officers, particularly front-line staff, with a much needed emphasis placed on a discretion and common-sense approach. We will continue to monitor the way this power is being used and report back to Members in due course.

26. All London boroughs have their full quota of Prevent Engagement Officers (PEO). The relationship between the PEOs and Territorial Policing is currently being progressed. The thrust of this is to ensure that all appropriate borough resources such as SNTs and School Involvement officers are fully briefed in respect of Prevent and are delivering a consistent Prevent message to communities and Partners.

Recent Operations and Trials

27. On 10 December three men were sentenced for their part in the 2006 “airline plot” investigated under Operation OVERT in supporting the airline bomb plotters. One was convicted of conspiracy, a second of preparation & assistance for terrorism, and a third for possessing records useful for terrorism. The three were sentenced to life with minimum 18 years, 8 years and 15 months.

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

How we monitor our performance

• The MPS does not use PIs for this corporate objective, which is linked to the wider milestones for delivering the national Olympic Security Programme that goes beyond policing and are the responsibility of the Home Secretary.

Recent Operations and activities

28. The policing of the New Years Eve festivities was successful thanks to the efforts of the 3,100 officers deployed, good planning by the MPS and good partnership working, led by the GLA. The 86 arrests were broadly in line with last year and were mainly for low level public order offences and drunkenness. There were a few more serious crimes including an allegation of rape. Despite the cold weather, the viewing area was full to its almost 200,000 capacity with a similar number unable to get in. The numbers of people coming to this event compared to the safe capacity of the area remains a cause for concern and will be discussed with partners.

29. The MPS’s Strategy Research and Analysis Unit worked with SO on an assessment of the policing of the demonstrations outside of a Harrow mosque. This work will help to improve communications in the lead up to further demonstrations. In addition the evidence has been used during discussions about operations at the Prevent Board.

Objective: Lead and manage our service to ensure the most efficient, effective and economic use of all the resources entrusted to us

Progress summary

• The assessment for the second half of this performance year is that BME representation on intakes will reach 25.4% with the rate for the whole of 2009/10 to be a minimum of 16.6% for 2009/10. That will be an improvement on last year's 16.2%.

Recruiting BME Officers

30. The proportion of BME officer recruits is 14.3% for the eight months to November 2009, against a target to increase to 20%. The 20% has always been seen as a very challenging goal. Because police officer turnover is 18% lower than forecast, the number of new officers to be recruited this year has been reduced by 400. The strategic impact of reduced attrition is:

• Restriction on the ability to improve the diversity of police officers
• Retention of experienced and skilled police officers

31. BME police officer strength increased from 2,864 at the end of March 2009 to 3,044 at the end of November 2009, an increase of 180 officers and a rise in percentage terms from 8.8% at the end of March 2009 to 9.1%.

Our People

32. At the end of November 2009 the MPS had:

• 33,413 regular police officers - 23% are female and 9.1% BME
• 2,859 special constables - 30% are female and 33% BME
• 4,626 Police Community Support Officers - 36% are female and 30% BME

Finance

33. The current revenue budget position is that the outturn forecast, as at Period 7 (October), is to overspend by £17.1m (approximately 0.5% of budget). The majority of the overspend is due to operational demands as a result of the G20, Tamil and Climate Camp demonstrations.

34. On 26 November, the Authority agreed the draft 2010-13 Budget and Business Plan for submission to the Mayor in line with his budget guidance. The Mayor’s budget for the MPA should be agreed by mid February.

C. Race and equality impact

There are key areas of specific activity in relation to equalities that 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

All costs associated with the activities outlined above are covered within existing budgets.

E. Legal implications

1. There are no direct legal implications arising from this performance monitoring report.

2. The MPA is required to monitor compliance of the performance of the MPS in accordance with s6ZA of the Police Act 1996 as inserted by the paragraph 8, Schedule 2 of the Police and Justice Act 2006 and The Police Authorities (Particular Functions & Transitional provisions) Order 2008.

F. Background papers

None

G. Contact details

Report author(s): Worth Houghton, MPS

For more information contact:

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

Appendix 2

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 of UK residents conducted face-to-face in people’s homes designed to capture levels of crime and public attitudes to crime as well as other criminal justice issues. The results play an important role informing Government policy. The survey captures the views of approximately 48,000 citizens across England & Wales annually – roughly 3,000 in London. Survey results are published quarterly and relate to a rolling 12-month period. Limitations are that respondents are aged 17+ and it does not capture business crime.

CPA

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

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).

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.

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.

MSV

Most Serious Violence includes homicide & child destruction; attempted murder; wounding/GBH; causing death by driving (dangerous driving, careless driving under the influence of drink or drugs, careless or inconsiderate driving) or by aggravated vehicle taking.

OGC

Office of Government Commerce

SD

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

Serious acquisitive

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

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