Performance Overview of Operation Compass

Report: 11
Date: 9 December 2010
By: Assistant Commissioner Territorial Policing on behalf of the Commissioner

Summary

This report provides an overview of the activity conducted by Operation Compass, the MPS Missing Person Bureau and the 32 Boroughs in relation to missing persons.

A. Recommendation

That

1. Members consider and note the contents of this report.

B. Supporting information

Operation Compass

1. MPA members have requested an overview of the activity conducted by Operations Jigsaw and Compass in the 32 Boroughs. Operation Jigsaw will be subject of a separate report.

2. Operation Compass was set up in 2004 as a small central strategic and policy unit to provide assistance and support for Boroughs and monitor performance and compliance. The unit has become the Single Point of Contact (SPOC) to progress issues raised by other Forces, the National Police Improvement Agency (NPIA), London Councils and other partnership agencies and charities. Operation Compass also now line manage the MPS Missing Person Bureau (MPB)

3. MPS Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for the Investigation of missing persons and unidentified bodies was published in March 2005. This incorporated National recommendations made in the Association of Chief Police Officer (ACPO) ‘Guidance on the management, recording and investigation of missing persons’. The Standard Operating Procedure was reviewed in 2008 and publication of the revised ACPO Guidance is awaited.

4. Operation Compass is currently staffed by one Detective Inspector, two Detective Sergeants and one Detective Constable. The unit assist in the risk management process by identifying and reviewing all unsolved high risk missing person cases overnight to ensure policy compliance, effective investigation and management procedures are in place. Any areas of concern are raised with the Borough management and discussed at a central Public Protection Daily Management Meeting, attended by staff from the TPHQ Community Safety Unit, Every Child Matters unit and Jigsaw unit (Management of Sex Offenders).

5. Operation Compass ensure MPS training material reflects up to date procedures and organisational learning from missing person cases nationally. The unit deliver courses to detective and uniform inspectors and Command and Control staff. Operation Compass host an annual seminar for Borough Missing Person Unit staff and line managers to update them of new initiatives within the MPS or across the UK. These are attended by guest speakers from outside partners, charities and other units within the MPS.

Missing Persons Bureau (MPB)

6. MPS Missing Persons Bureau (MPB) was set up in 1929, becoming part of Operation Compass in 2008. The MPB records missing persons and unidentified persons/bodies reported by other Forces with a potential London connection. It conducts research to ascertain whether any reports can be cross matched to a London report of a missing or found person/body. The MPB also provide support for Borough investigations of missing persons and unidentified persons/bodies and act as a national SPOC for all forces and the NPIA.

7. In the last year the MPB reviewed 75 unidentified bodies (deceased) and 223 unidentified persons reported to the MPS, carried out advanced cross match searches on the unsolved ones and highlighted lines of further enquiries to the owning borough. A cross match search is a comparison between the description of a missing person and the descriptive details of any unidentified bodies or persons notified to the MPS. The MPB also took primacy for researching 819 London connection missing persons; 39 London connection unidentified bodies; 23 London connection unidentified persons and approximately 100 enquiries from members of the public.

Borough perspective

8. Boroughs retain the investigation and ownership of all missing person cases unless they are suspected to be a murder victim. In these circumstances the investigation is the responsibility of the Serious Crime Directorate (SCD). Every MPS Borough has a dedicated Missing Person Unit (MPU) comprising of between 2 and 5 police officers and most are supervised jointly with the public protection desk. Borough Commanders have autonomy over resourcing Borough MPU’s, terms of references and performance. Some MPUs are responsible for the secondary investigation of unsolved missing persons whilst others steer the investigation carried out by front line officers.

Performance monitoring

9. There are no Government or MPS targets concerning missing persons.

10. In January 2009, qualitative performance data was developed to indicate monthly compliance with SOPs, timeliness of supervision; mandatory checks, risk assessment and completion of debrief interviews.

11. Since then, an improved data extraction process has been introduced to establish the scale of repeat missing persons. Operation Compass is currently developing a monthly performance report to highlight repeat missing children and identify the top 10 individuals for each Borough. It will then be for the Boroughs to instigate partnership problem solving in this area and Commander Crime and Customer Focus has indicated his wish to drive performance in this area, checking the focus in Territorial Policing is on repeat victims.

Headline performance

12. There are approximately 40,000 new missing person reports per year. The busiest Boroughs are Haringey (average 418 per month), Lambeth (324 per month), Croydon (249 per month) and Lewisham (246 per month). The least busy Boroughs are Kingston (66 per month), Sutton (63 per month), Havering (58 per month) and Richmond (54 per month).

13. The following table provides a breakdown of figures between 1st April 2009 and 31st March 2010.

Table 1 - Total number of missing persons reported to MPS 01.04.2009 - 31.03.2010

14. The majority of missing person enquiries are resolved within a short period of time, on average 93% within a month and illustrates 99% within 2.5 months. MPS records date back to 1950 and there are a total of 1458 unsolved cases up to 31st March 2010. This represents approximately 0.4% of the total number of missing person reports. These include murder cases where the record must remain open, because the body has not yet been found, to enable cross match searches with bodies subsequently found, cases where the missing person is understood by police to be safe and well in another country but this has not proved possible to verify to enable closure and complex immigration cases.

15. Performance across the MPS in relation to completion of risk factors and debriefing is good with MPS averages for Risk factors 82% and debriefs 84%. Waltham Forest is a Borough that has significantly improved performance in relation to debriefing missing persons, progressing from 22% compliance in February 2010 to 91% in August 2010. This improvement has taken place as a result of a change to the Merlin IT system to ensure supervision is carried out by a Sergeant.

Impact of key developments

16. SOPs are due to be reviewed in 2011 but no significant changes are anticipated as there have been continual updates made as organisational learning is identified within the MPS, other Forces or the NPIA. One example of this is the changes to procedures since the introduction of the ‘Every Child Matters’ agenda.

17. A monthly performance report is being developed to identify high level repeat missing children which will enable improved partnership problem solving. This person centred approach is consistent with the new MPS Anti-Violence Strategy. This new report will highlight missing children who are victims or perpetrators of crime before, during or after they go missing particularly in relation to violent and sexual crimes. It is expected that the Anti-Violence Strategy will enhance and support this work stream.

Partnership work

18. Operation Compass represents the MPS at a strategic level with a variety of partnership agencies, including the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF), London Child Protection Committee, London Councils and various charities.

19. Operation Compass worked with the London Child Protection Committee to develop the comprehensive pan London procedures for ‘Missing from Education’ and ‘Safeguarding Children Missing from Care and Home’. All police Boroughs have been asked to put missing persons on the Local Safeguarding Children’s Board (LSCB) agenda in order to develop a partnership approach to instances of children repeatedly going missing. A Lancashire project ‘Mountain to Molehills’ estimated that police costs were at least £1000 for one basic missing person case. The cost alone is high however of more concern is that some of these children maybe targeted for sexual exploitation and become drug/alcohol abusers.

20. Operation Compass has worked with Barnados, Children’s Society, NSPCC and Missing People to assist in their research concerning missing children; and also represented the MPS in a project group, led by London Councils, to assess the viability of St Christopher’s Refuge, providing emergency accommodation for missing children. This assisted these agencies in producing research to guide best practice for partnership work.

21. Pockets of good practice partnership exist across the MPS. Merton Borough part-fund the charity ‘Jigsaw 4 U’ and refer repeat missing children to them after the police debrief has taken place. Ex Social Service staff employed by the charity then carry out an independent debrief interview with the child to ascertain the reasons for them going missing and work with the child to prevent repeat occurrences. As a result of their success in reducing the incidence of repeat episodes, Sutton also now provide part funding for the same service.

22. A Police Officer from Islington was seconded on to the Barnados ‘Young Women’s Project’. The service works with girls and young women up to the age of 18 years who are involved in or at risk of being sexually exploited. The Projects’ aims are to provide a range of practical social care, health and educational services, which focus on prevention, harm reduction and recovery for young women. The officer worked with the girls and debriefed all of them if they had gone missing to address the underlying causes. The project continues although the officer’s secondment has finished.

C. Other organisational and community implications

Equality and Diversity Impact

1. The incidence of missing person reports affects all communities, ages and genders. An equality impact assessment was carried out when the policy was introduced in 2005 and again when it was reviewed in 2008. An annual monitoring report is also compiled to ensure the policy addresses equality and diversity issues. Only 10 complaints against police were made, 6 of which related to lack of policy compliance and 4 related to officer’s behaviour. There was no evidence this impacted adversely on any diverse communities.

2. An equal number of males and females are reported missing and children make up 62% of the reports. A disproportionate number of the black community are reported missing (36%) compared to the 12.4% of the London population (2001 census) although the number of black youths in the population is 18% and this is the most common age group to be reported missing. The issue was discussed with the independent advisory group and it was recognised that police do not impact on people going missing and there was no evidence of any negative outcome.

3. A new monthly performance report is being developed to identify high level repeat missing children which will enable improved partnership problem solving with the objective of reducing the 62% of reports that are for missing children across differing boroughs.

4. The policy is applicable to all diversity strands and its primary object is to locate and safeguard vulnerable people whatever their background. Resource allocation is dependent on the high, medium or low risk category that they are graded. There is no evidence that the policy has adversely affected any member of the public on the basis of race, gender, sexual orientation, disability, age, religion or belief.

Consideration of MET Forward

5. Addressing the issues of repeat missing children, through partnership intervention, is intended to impact on reducing crime as many of these individuals are either victims or suspects of crime. Reduction of repeat missing person episodes will free up police time to carry out more preventative work and will increase confidence in policing. There is an element of public protection under the Met Specialist strand of Met Forward as a large amount of the work that is completed is around vulnerable people who are missing particularly children.

Financial Implications

6. The MPS has recently agreed to fund the upgrade of Merlin to meet the MPS requirements for the Child Sex Offender Disclosure Act. Upgrades required for Compass have therefore been put on hold, until such time as funding can be made available. The upgrade is required to meet NPIA Codes of Practice regarding exchange of data between Merlin and the NPIA national database. The cost of the data exchange with the NPIA is estimated at 75K, the NPIA have agreed to fund £14.5k which is half of the development costs and is in line with funding provided to other forces.

Legal Implications

7. There are no legal implications.

Environmental Implications

8. There are no environmental implications.

Risk Implications

9. Any reduction in resources applied to the investigation of missing persons may adversely impact on the vulnerability of people whilst missing, may increase crimes committed against or by them and cause a loss of confidence in the MPS.

D. Background papers

None

D. Contact details

Report author: Detective Inspector Ann Simpson Operation Compass, MPS

For information contact:

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

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