Centralised MPS Traffic Criminal Justice Unit

Report: 11
Date: 14 November 2002
By: Commissioner

Summary

The growth of the Transport Operational Command Unit (OCU) is now causing a burden on Borough Criminal Justice Units that will affect their operational efficiency against crime matters.

This report outlines a MPS proposal to set up a centralised Criminal Justice Unit to deal with all traffic prosecutions and anti-social behaviour tickets generated by Police Officers, Traffic Wardens and Police Community Support Officers attached to the Traffic & Transport Branch.

The funding for this project will come from phase I of the Transport Policing Initiative that is fully funded by Transport for London (TfL).

A decision is required at this time as the office space in question, which is co-located within the existing MPS Central Driving Offences Unit, is being offered on the open market. Failure to acquire it would mean the MPS would not be able to take advantage of economies of scale.

A. Recommendation

1. Members are asked to agree to the development of a centralised Traffic & Transport Criminal Justice Unit as outlined in this report.
2. That the MPA undertake a five year lease for additional floor space at the existing MPS Central Driving Offences Unit, Marlowe House, Sidcup, Kent.

B. Supporting information

Introduction

1. The reporting of motoring offences by police is divided into two categories:

• those dealt with by fixed penalty notice; and
• the more serious motoring offences dealt with by way of summons to court.

2. Fixed Penalty Notices (FPNs) issued by police and traffic wardens, where offences are not contested, are dealt with by the MPS Central Driving Offences Unit (CDOU), situated at Marlowe House in Sidcup. The unit currently has 153 staff. The CDOU is also responsible for the detection and enforcement of traffic offences using automatic cameras, and the recovery of unpaid vehicle removal charges.

3. The more serious motoring offences detected by borough and traffic officers, and the Fixed Penalty Notice cases where the motorist elects to go to court, are dealt with through the Borough criminal justice units (CJUs) where the offence took place. These CJUs are made up of a crime section and traffic process section; the number of staff in each section varies from borough to borough both in real terms and relative to workload.

Focus on crime

4. Over a number of years Divisional and Borough Commanders have taken resourcing decisions on the basis of crime priorities. These decisions have been in the context of reducing resources – particularly in relation to budgets for civil staff - and increasing demand. One of the areas where the effect of these decisions has been significant has been in criminal justice units. Here, choices have had to be made between supporting casework relating to priority crime or traffic offences. As the MPS has increased the emphasis on crime, managers have moved resources from traffic process sections to crime, and have restricted the number and type of process cases that they deal with.

4. The drive against street crime through ‘operation safer streets’ has served to increase the focus on improving criminal justice performance in priority crime matters, potentially at the further expense of traffic prosecutions. The effect of all this has been to create a reduced and varied level of prosecution support for officers working for the centralised Traffic OCU.

New developments

5. The roll out of the Transport OCU - for which TfL have paid a ‘per capita’ cost for traffic process work - creates an obligation that the MPS must meet. The variation in support for traffic process across the MPS does not currently enable this obligation to be met. The situation is now becoming critical as the size of the TfL funded Transport OCU continues to grow. The OCU is rolling out a new route every 2 weeks and will reach its full establishment of 531 by March 2003. However, phase II, which is now being negotiated with TfL, will add a further 400 staff, increasing further the demand for processing and prosecution work.

6. The introduction of Automated Number Plate Recognition systems (ANPR) will increase the incidence of traffic offences coming to light, as will the need to address the problem of the increasing number of drivers failing to register vehicles with DVLA. (Statistics show that of the 150,000 vehicles processed as a result of camera enforcement during 2001, 8% [13,000] were found to have registration irregularities.) This also has an obvious impact on crime investigations.

Proposal

7. The success of the MPS Central Driving Offences Unit, in processing all Fixed Penalty Notices generated in London, and the economies of scale achieved, provides a template for the solution to meet the growing demands outlined above.

8. It is therefore proposed that a centralised Traffic and Transport Prosecutions Unit (CJU) be set up within the existing CDOU structure.

The benefits

9. A centralised Traffic and Transport CJU will enable the MPS to meet the current and anticipated demands as described above.

• All Traffic and Transport Branch traffic process work will be removed from Borough criminal justice units allowing them to concentrate more of their resources on crime issues.
• Centralising the function within the existing MPS CDOU will provide economies of scale.
• Centralising the function will improve performance in prosecution processes and provide an effective, standardised system.
• There is an opportunity for the MPS to take on prosecution work for TfL, including bus lane enforcement cameras and fare evasion, at additional cost to TfL.
• At the present time persistent offenders are not pursued with any vigour, if at all. This unit will allow for the formation of a persistent offender section.
• The Traffic and Transport central intelligence unit will be able to obtain substantially more intelligence for targeting purposes.
• This will be achieved with no cost to boroughs.
• Better relationship with CPS regarding traffic issues will result.
• Opportunities for special, dedicated traffic courts are created.

Resources

Staffing

10. The staff required to undertake the prosecution work from phase I of the Transport Policing Initiative includes a Chief Inspector supported by 2 Inspectors and 5 Executive Officers who would manage the new unit, 35 Administrative Officers, 15 Administrative Assistants and 2 typists. Annual staffing costs will be £1,200,000.

11. A similar number of civilian staff would be required for phase II of the TPI due to commence in April 2003. The majority of staff will be new recruits to the MPS. However, a certain amount of experienced staff will be required and these will be recruited from within the CDOU.

Accommodation and information technology

12. Marlowe House is a private office block in Sidcup consisting of 14 floors of office space. The CDOU occupies two floors and a MPS Specialist Operations Unit occupies one floor. Various companies and agencies are using the remaining 9 occupied floors. The two vacant floors are currently being offered for rent on the open market. This report is proposing the lease of one of these floors.

13. This vacant office space has presented an excellent opportunity to expand the work of the CDOU to deal with the new demand being created by the Transport Policing Initiative. It will place all traffic prosecution cases within the same building and allow the new function to operate as an integral part of the CDOU. Support functions are already in place and can be shared giving a significant cost saving. These include: the human resources unit; information technology unit; administration unit; the finance and resource unit; and business support. There is already a computer link (Porteus) in place with the Inner London Magistrates’ Courts.

14. The accommodation fully meets requirements in its present layout. It also incorporates a large purpose-built post room. The current CDOU post room is unsatisfactory and has been criticised by MPA auditors for being cramped and overlooked by other work areas. The existing area will be entirely inadequate to cope with the increased CDOU postal requirements. It is intended to re-locate the whole of the CDOU post room to the new purpose-built facility.

15. It will be necessary to provide approximately 50 AWARE desktop workstations for the CJU staff. In addition, PNC access facilities will be required and a suitable case preparation IT system should be obtained to support the unit’s processes and quality control. The necessary furniture, preparation of the accommodation, software, AWARE workstations, communications ports and ten printers will cost approximately £200,000.

16. To secure this additional floor requires the MPA to commit to a five year lease at £400,000 per annum, including service costs, rates etc. Although the additional floor will be sufficient to deal with phase I and II levels of prosecutions, it is being fully funded from the phase I budget.

C. Equality and diversity implications

The contents and recommendations of this paper are not considered to have equality and diversity implications.

D. Financial implications

1. There are no financial costs on the MPA budget. These will be met from the TfL TOCU budget. The Special Services Agreement, section 14 provides indemnity for the MPA should TfL subsequently decide they no longer wish to proceed with the Transport OCU. Should the MPA decide they wish to dispose of the accommodation this would be achieved at no cost to the MPA budget.

2. The start up and running costs to the end of this financial year are estimated at:

Year 2002/03 (partial)

(Full staffing costs will not commence until January 2003 after recruitment).

Year 2003/04

3. The ongoing annual cost of £1.6m will be met from within the TOCU budget.

4. Negotiations regarding phase II of the TPI are working on the basis that approximately £1.5m will be required for prosecution work, in addition to the £1.6m per annum for Phase I.

E. Background papers

None

F. Contact details

Report author: Commander Alan Shave

For more information contact:

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

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