Operation Target

Report: 9
Date: 8 September 2011
By: Assistant Commissioner Territorial Policing on behalf of the Commissioner

Summary

This report provides an overview and operational update for Operation Target that commenced on 8 June 2011. It details the strategic intention, approach and operational objectives, including the rationale for the operation. It further details operation’s governance structure, including its performance framework and review mechanisms. The report assesses its impact to date and provides some examples of tactics and significant results.

A. Recommendation

That Members note the content of this report regarding Operation Target.

B. Supporting information

1. Operation Target commenced on Wednesday 8 June 2011. It is scheduled to run for a period of six months and will be subject of full operational review three months following inception. The operation is led by Territorial Policing but involves contributions from all MPS business groups and operational command units.

Strategic Intention

2. The operation supports key elements within Met Forward and has the following key strategic intention:

To enhance public confidence and safety by sustaining the long-term reductions in crime and anti-social behaviour in London

Strategic Approach

3. The operation has been designed and is being developed to sustain the long-term trend of reduction in crime in London. This is in the context of short-term crime challenges and the planned reductions in resources. It is intended that this operation should deliver reductions in recorded crime and anti-social behaviour without additional spend through the improved co-ordination and deployment of MPS resources and capabilities.

4. Central to this strategic approach is the targeting of increasingly scarce MPS resources towards vulnerable and repeat victims, offenders that cause the most harm, and the locations that suffer disproportionately from crime and anti-social behaviour. The operation is designed to add further support to the focus upon VOLT - Victim, Offender, Location, Time - and continue the move away from tactics and resources deployed to address specific crime types.

5. This operation to reduce crime in London complements and aligns with the work within the Service Development Programme to deliver a new policing model for London. It is intended that Operation Target should deliver more with less by targeting resources and improving their deployment and co-ordination across all MPS Operational Command Units.

6. Initial delivery of enforcement and prevention interventions focuses upon (1) locations suffering disproportionate levels of crime and (2) the most harmful offenders.

7. Research undertaken over many years confirms a series of areas that suffer disproportionately from crime and anti-social behaviour. Operation Target has designated 19 Target Areas covering 76 Wards and extending to 22 Boroughs. These Target Areas typically contribute 31% of the most serious violence and personal robbery, 15% of residential burglary and 20% of non-residential burglary. These contributions have remained stable over many years and are confirmed with both long- term and short-term trend data.

Operational Objectives

8. It is the clear operational objective to deliver corporate crime reduction by targeting MPS resources and capabilities for greater impact upon the designated Target Areas and most harmful offenders.

The Operation has the following objectives:

1. To achieve a significant and sustained reduction in crime and anti-social behaviour within London;
2. To accelerate and sustain the reduction in public place violence including the most serious violence and all violence with injury;
3. To address the recent growth in serious acquisitive crime, notably recorded offences of personal robbery (including that involving knives) and residential burglary;

Governance and Operational Review

9. Operation Target has strategic lead (Gold Commander) under Commander De Brunner, Area Commander TP South West London. The command structure involves ACPO level leads across all MPS business groups - Specialist Operations, Specialist Crime Directorate, Central Operations and Territorial Policing. The command structure includes specific senior leads for community engagement, confidence, problem-solving, intelligence and operations.

10. The operation has central co-ordination and delivery of operational support but is delivered through Area and relevant Borough Commanders. A Daily Management Meeting (including weekends) operates to review operational activity and adjust operational deployments in accordance with intelligence. A weekly Gold/Silver Co-ordinating Group operates to review and develop the operation through contributions across business groups.

11. Review and co-ordination is achieved through existing business group and corporate tasking structures and budgets. Daily operational oversight and control of deployments is enhanced through Target Control established within the Central Command Complex and Lambeth between 12.00pm and 2.00am each day. The existing MPS Co-ordinating and Tasking Office (CATO) is operating to plan and allocate corporate support for local operational delivery.

12. The performance framework for the operation comprises indicators of crime and anti- social behaviour at corporate, Borough and Ward levels. Weekly Highlight Reports feed to monthly internal review through the MPS Performance Board and necessary reporting to the Authority.

13. Daily and weekly review will capture a range of strategic and tactical learning. A formal operational review is scheduled for September, after three months of operation. The Strategic Research and Analysis Unit (SRAU) and the Leadership Academy are supporting work capture and apply learning from Operation Target.

Operational Resourcing

14. Resources to support Operation Target have been deployed without additional cost. This has been and will remain a firm operating principle. The operation seeks to draw additional resources and capabilities to impact upon the designated Target Areas. This comprises the following elements:

• the secondment of additional staff to Borough Commands;
• the tasking of additional workload to OCUs within the Serious Crime Directorate and Specialist Operations;
• the provision of additional support from Central Operations;
• the increased use of MSC resources in Target Areas;
• the re-deployment of reserve serials drawn to central London public order events;
• the re-focusing of proactive crime operations and default patrol activity from TP, SCD, CO and SO to impact upon the designated Target Areas.

15. Some 55 officers normally engaged with Specialist Operations have been seconded to Borough Commands since the operation commenced. Some 33 current proactive investigations are being supported by staff from within SCD Operational Command Units. This includes a number of operations to trace offenders and arrest gang-based offenders by the Homicide Task Force and Operation Trident.

16. Operation Target draws together and directs existing operational activity under Operation Blunt 2, Operation Connect (targeting of gang-based offenders) and the London Crime Squad and National Mobile Phone Crime Unit (NMPCU).

Activity

17. As at 7 August 2011 some 13,128 operational deployments had been made under Operation Target resulting in 6,378 arrests. Operational deployments are tasked each day with forward operational plans being supported by resources through the MPS Co-ordinating and Tasking Office (CATO).

18. Tactics are wide ranging and bespoke to the particular challenges within each of the designated Target Areas. They include:

• The execution of search warrants following intelligence relating to the supply of drugs and/or the handling of stolen property;
• The increased use of Automatic Number Plate Readers (ANPR) to identify and seize vehicles being used in crime in and around the Target Areas;
• The use of search activity, including hand-held wands and screening arches, to detect and deter the carriage of lethal weapons;
• The use of search operations at large public events and in areas with significant late night economy to detect and deter the carriage of weapons and controlled drugs;
• The deployment of covert resources and techniques to target groups and gangs involved in drug supply and related violence;
• The deployment of additional staff to protect and engage with school-aged children around schools/colleges, on transport and in town centres between 1500-1800 each weekday during term time;
• The use of legislation to monitor, enforce and review licence conditions for premises attracting disproportionate levels of violent and acquisitive crime;
• The deployment of central support, including SO and SCD capability, to trace and arrest offenders who are unlawfully at large.

19. Whilst operations impacting the Target Areas and the highest harm offenders have been significant across the summer, the operation also includes specific work that seeks to resolve ongoing threats and produce sustainable reductions in crime and anti- social behaviour. All Safer Neighbourhood Teams in the designated Target Areas have reviewed problem-solving plans with partners and have been engaged with all operational activity. Work at the tactical level to solve local problems of crime and anti- social behaviour is supported by a central Strategic Problem Solving Board that will exploit and spread effective practice and engage with key statutory and commercial organisations as necessary.

20. A number of operational deployments to date have resulted in significant resource deployments, enforcement activity and resultant arrests and prosecutions. These and other examples have attracted local and pan-London media coverage. They include:

• Searches on the morning of 6 July 2011 resulting in the arrest and charge of 14 subjects for a series of more than 50 personal and commercial robberies in Lambeth, Croydon, Wandsworth and Merton;
• Searches and arrests on the morning of 13 July 2011 resulting in the detention and charge of 15 gang-based offenders involved in street robbery and the supply of controlled drugs;
• The arrest on 11 July 2011 of a subject wanted for burglary offences in Tower Hamlets subsequent charges relating to 18 such offences;
• A search of an address in Lambeth on 8 June 2011 that has resulted in the recovery of over 200 stolen mobile phones;
• The arrest of a suspect at a public concert event in Hyde Park after being found in possession of twenty stolen mobile phones retained with specially designed clothing (organised theft of phones);
• The arrest of two subjects in Enfield after being observed by officers from the Safer Transport Command pick-pocketing and stealing a purse from an elderly victim whilst on the bus;
• The closure of a nightclub premises by police on 10 June 2011 in Kingston resulting a substantial reduction in violent crime and anti-social behaviour in the locality.

Impact

21. The trend in offences of the most serious violence and the broader category covering all violence with injury in London has showed continued reduction across the summer in comparison with the levels recorded during 2010. The position at 7 August 2011 shows the most serious violence having declined by 9.4% since 1 April 2011 compared with the same period in 2010. For the wider category of all violence with injury, the position shows a current 10.0% reduction compared with 7.27% at the commencement of Operation Target.

22. Similarly the level of recorded residential burglary shows sustained weekly reduction since June 2011 and is now below the levels recorded at this point last year. At 7 August 2011 the level of residential burglary since 1 April 2011 shows a 10.9% increase on the same period in 2010. However, this growth has reduced steadily since the commencement of Operation Target when a 16.38% increase was recorded. Since the Operation started the level of growth for residential burglary is lower in the designated Target Areas compared with London as a whole.

23. The position with regard to personal robbery, including that involving knives and/or personal robbery was some 19.6% above that recorded in the same period last year. The growth in robbery is significantly lower in the designated Target Areas. Since the Operation commenced personal robbery has grown by 12.7% in the Target Areas compared with growth of 21.9% in London as a whole. However, despite growth when compared with last year, there has been a sustained downward trend from late June 2011. The weekly total at 7 August 2011 was only 1.4% above the equivalent week last year (8 offences).

24. Displacement of offending has been a concern and is the subject of daily operational review. There has and will continue to be necessary flexibility in the allocation and deployments of supporting resources within and outside the designated Target Areas. This includes specific support to those areas that have sustained threats from residential burglary.

Operation Kirkin

25. Following large scale disorder within London and other UK cities, Operation Target was suspended on 6 August 2011 as all available operational resources were made available to address public disorder. Operation Withern supports Operation Kirkin in providing an investigative response to arrest and prosecute those involved in these serious crimes. The Authority has received other reports in relation to these issues and the MPS response.

C. Other organisational and community implications

Equality and Diversity Impact

1. Operation Target is intended to enhance the level of enforcement and preventative intervention to impact upon crime and anti-social behaviour in designated Target Areas. There are 19 designated Target Areas comprising 76 Wards across 22 Borough Commands in London.

2. The resident and visiting populations within these areas imply a wide and ongoing impact upon sections of community in London. In the short-term, the operation has ensured enhanced community engagement and attention to necessary community tension monitoring through Communities Together. This allows indicators to be captured through discussion with Borough Commanders at the Target Daily Management Meeting or weekly Silver Co-ordinating Group.

3. Following operational review in September, further work will be commissioned to understand and assess any disproportionate impact of enhanced enforcement upon identified communities in London. This applies to street-based enforcement tactics, including stop and search, together with interventions focused upon venues that generate or experience higher levels of crime and anti-social behaviour.

Consideration of Met Forward

4. As detailed above, Operation Target supports key elements of Met Forward. Its central aim is to increase confidence by focusing upon areas that contribute disproportionately to crime and anti-social behaviour in London. Its governance and delivery seeks to achieve this through more efficient and effective deployment of existing MPS resources.

Financial Implications

5. Operation Target is being delivered within existing funding allocations to OCUs and Business Group Tasking budgets. Its ethos is deliberately one of delivery without additional cost through the appropriate re-deployment and co-ordination of resources utilized across business groups and OCUs. There are therefore no financial implications for the Authority.

Legal Implications

6. There are no direct legal implications that arise from this report which is submitted for information purposes only.

Environmental Implications

7. There are no environmental implications that arise for the Authority from the current of planned delivery of Operation Target.

Risk (including Health and Safety) Implications

8. The level and intensity of operational deployments under Operation Target implies increased demands on staff and operational risks arising from enforcement to protect the public from serious violence. Existing risk assessment processes have been supplemented by specific scrutiny of officer injuries and other incidents at the Target Daily Management Meeting. OCUs have existing processes to report and investigate actual or potential injury to staff arising from operational deployments.

D. Background papers

• None

D. Contact details

Report author: Ch. Supt. David Chinchen, Silver, Operation Target

For information contact:

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

Send an e-mail linking to this page

Feedback