Operational Support Police Service Improvement Review – implementation report

Report: 5
Date: 13 February 2006
By: Commissioner

Summary

This report provides the fourth update on implementation of the 13 recommendations of the Operational Support Policing Service Improvement Review that were approved in December 2003 by the Planning, Performance and Review Committee.

A. Recommendation

That Members approve that recommendations 2, 4, 6, 7 and 13 have been completed.

B. Supporting information

Background to the report

1. On 11 December 2003, the Planning, Performance and Review Committee (PPRC) approved the recommendations and improvement plan of the Operational Support Policing Service Improvement Review.

2. The Review made 13 recommendations focusing on functions that support the delivery of policing services to the public by Borough Operational Command Units.

3. Commander Broadhurst, who chaired the Review’s Project Board, has chaired an Implementation Board overseeing progress towards achieving the recommendations. Chief Superintendent David Morgan (formerly the SIR Team Leader and now Chief Superintendent Partnership for the City of Westminster) has been the Implementation Manager. The Implementation Board comprised personnel with particular responsibility for the recommendations. Links have been established with other Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) projects and where possible recommendations have been linked into existing pieces of work.

4. At the PPRCs in July 2004 and January 2005, Members approved that implementation of recommendations 1, 3, 5, 8, 10, and 12 had been completed. Further, that responsibility for recommendations 9 and 11 is transferred to the Human Resources Directorate reporting to the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) Human Resources Committee.

5. Further progress has been achieved to date as follows:

• Recommendation 2 – To provide boroughs with a more efficient and effective method of accessing the most appropriate support unit to assist with incidents and also to provide a source of advice and information through the establishment of a 24/7 joint central gateway for Territorial Policing (TP) and Specialist Crime Directorate (SCD).
  • The SCD Central Reserve is fully operational and performing a very valuable service. Members may recall that consultation during the Review highlighted the difficulties that borough staff faced in locating the appropriate SCD unit to support them at an incident. The SCD Central Reserve has remedied this original problem and boroughs now have immediate access to SCD advice and support.
  • Since the Service Improvement Review was completed, the Central Operations (CO) Directorate has been formed. CO recognise the need to monitor the deployment of pan London assets and provide a corporate response to fast time requirements.
  • On 31 January 2006, Management Board approved the establishment of a 24/7 CO Operations Office compatible with C3i and Integrated Borough Operations’ projects. CO will now develop a project plan to put the Operations Office into place.
  • Once the CO Operations Office is in place, Boroughs will have immediate access to the most appropriate corporate support to meet their operational needs.
  • Members are invited to note the organisational developments since the Review reported in December 2003 and agree that work on this recommendation has been taken to a conclusion.
• Recommendation 4 – To improve the consistency and coordination of policing on boroughs by implementing a protocol to ensure the Integrated Borough Operations Office is informed of operational support units operating proactively in their area, unless to do so would compromise that, or future operations.
  • A protocol was developed following a workshop attended by representatives from SCD, Special Branch (SO12), Anti Terrorist Branch (SO13) and TP that will inform boroughs when executive action, e.g. the arrest of suspects, is planned. The MPS Patrol and Response Strategic Committee approved the protocol on 3 June 2005.
  • The protocol was finally published in the MPS Weekly Notices on 23 November 2005. It reiterates good practice that is already largely embedded in MPS operations. It will ensure that boroughs are aware of proactive operations in their area and make certain that local community issues are considered during the planning phase. Taking into account these considerations will help to prevent the work of operational support units undermining local police community relations.
  • Members are invited to approve that this recommendation has been achieved
• Recommendation 6 – To raise community awareness about the use of operational support resources by borough commanders through their local media, local consultative group meetings and other channels of communication.
  • The original recommendation was made in the light of external consultation that revealed a thirst for information about the use of operational support resources.
  • Many boroughs have appointed Borough Press Officers since the Operational Support Policing SIR reported in December 2003. Borough Commanders now use the media to promote positive news about policing operations, including those conducted by operational units, to their communities. This proactive approach to communications will have helped to raise community awareness about the use of operational support units.
  • Furthermore, the Together Programme is now seeking to promote the MPS in a more unified way reflecting the totality of response to the widening policing mission. The initiative is bringing borough and support units closer together.
  • A communications programme is being developed to progress the Team Met initiative and the introduction of new organisational values. It will help to ensure that boroughs inform their communities about the use of operational support resources in their areas. The recommendation is being taken into account by the Directorate of Public Affairs (DPA) in the development of the new MPS Corporate Communication Strategy.
  • Further communities are now engaging more and more with their local Safer Neighbourhood Teams (SNT). In order to ensure that the recommendation is taken forward, SNTs and Borough SNT leads have been briefed about the need to raise community awareness about the often-unseen units that deliver operational support in their local areas.
  • Specialist Crime Directorate has also now given a number of presentations to Community Police Consultative Groups and other bodies in order to raise awareness about its work in boroughs.
  • To provide a systematic response to this need, the DPA are developing the MPS Internet site so that it will provide information to the public about the different layers of policing that operate cross London including in particular operational support resources. The Internet development will effectively replace the previous DPA leaflet that raised awareness about operational support units that was available to boroughs to dispense in their communities.
  • Members are invited to approve that this recommendation has been achieved.
• Recommendation 7 – To measure activities and outcomes of operational support units in the most effective and efficient way in order to improve performance management and to influence decision making about their staffing requirements.
  • The Review identified different approaches being taken by MPS units to link their activities and the use of resources to the outcomes of operations.
  • To achieve the recommendation, Internal Consultancy Group (ICG) was commissioned to evaluate the different systems being used within the MPS. The aim was not to find the ‘best’ system, as the units perform very different functions. Instead there were three main areas of focus:
    • Determining which information is the most useful for managers (both at a local level and to inform resource decisions for operational support units).
    • Recommending approaches that other operational support units might use for activity recording; and
    • Establishing how MetTime could be rolled out to other operational support units.
  • ICG found that a variety of approaches were being taken but that one key initiative had stalled. Unfortunately, the activity logger that is part of the MetDuties system proved very difficult to use and as a consequence the trial planned within Specialist Crime Directorate (SCD), Serious and Organised Crime (SCD7) did not take place.
  • MetTime is superseding MetDuties. This new system does not, however, have an activity logger as part of its current project plan. An immediate technological solution is not therefore at hand.
  • Both CO and SCD appreciate the need to adduce evidence that their resources are being employed efficiently and effectively. During their respective tasking processes, CO and SCD now focus on the results achieved by their operations. This enables senior managers to achieve maximum benefit from available resources and thus improve overall performance.
  • SCD use the National Intelligence Model (NIM) framework to assess the effectiveness and efficiency of their operations. Greater emphasis is placed on the analysis of the results of operations. Senior managers are then able to ensure that the right levels of resources are being employed on operations to achieve the most effective outcomes.
  • CO Command Team monitor the effectiveness and efficiency of individual support OCUs. Monthly reports show the performance of OCUs against their respective policing objectives.
  • Tasking of CO assets focus on operational priorities in terms of crime types and geographic areas of needs. Since formation, CO has mounted 652 separate operations in response to demands from internal customers.
  • The tasking process seeks to use the specialist experience of CO staff and units to add value with effective tactical problem solving based on evaluated good practice. Results are analysed and feedback sought from units and the boroughs where they have worked to continuously improve the effectiveness of deployments.
  • Members are invited to note the progress made against the Review recommendation. Both CO and SCD are continuing to develop their performance management processes in order to make the best use of available resources.
  • Members are invited to approve that work on this recommendation within the context of the Review may be concluded.
• Recommendation 13 – To evaluate the effectiveness of the SCD7/Her Majesty’s Customs and Excise (HMCE) initiative in disrupting the availability of Class A drugs at the point of supply in boroughs.
  • The Middle Market Drugs Project (MMDP) is an innovative and unique concept of inter-agency working developed to fill an enforcement gap at Level 2 identified in a report by the Ministerial Committee on Domestic Affairs, Sub Committee on Drugs Policy. The existence of this gap was also ratified by a Home Office research study in 2001. This research showed a lack of proactive enforcement in NIM Level 2 Class A drugs supply. This vacuum was the result of Customs and the National Crime Squad (NCS) operating at Level 3 and the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) in the main operating at Level 1, as required by their respective priorities.
  • The MMDP commenced on 6 September 2004 and an analysis of effectiveness was conducted for the period of its first six months as a fully operational unit, from 8 November 2004 to 8 May 2005.
  • The MMDP only operates within the Metropolitan Police District (MPD) and it tackles predominantly Class A drugs and the following are some of the key achievements:
    • 38 successful proactive operations across 20 boroughs
    • 109 people charged
    • 329 kilos of Class A drugs seized
    • 7 firearms seized
    • £979,942 cash seized
    • £22,403 forfeitures
  • It is unquestionable that the work of the MMDP in removing large quantities of Class A drugs from the streets of London must have had an impact. The efforts made to get best evidence, the long sentences received by the unit’s targets and the fact that many of these people are major players in criminal networks will have seriously disrupted many criminal organisations.
  • However, measuring the impact of Level 2 drugs operations in any drugs market is a very complex business. The size of the drugs problem cannot be established. Drug use is not self-reporting, and therefore police figures reflect police activity rather than being a true reflection of drug use. There is no agreed method of measuring the impact of drugs initiatives or identifying which projects are responsible for market changes. The impact that the MMDP has had in London’s drugs market during the last six months cannot therefore be measured.
  • The analysis has made a number of recommendations including the establishment of intelligence officers as a link between MMDP and boroughs to improve the quantity and quality of intelligence about Level 2 drugs activity.
  • The future of the MMDP is now being determined having regard to the introduction in April 2006 of the Serious and Organised Crime Agency (SOCA). Deputy Assistant Commissioner Yates leads for the MPS in these negotiations.
  • A new approach to tackling street level drugs has also been tested at Camden. The Concerted Interagency Drugs Action Group (CIDA) seeks to connect and coordinate law enforcement agencies in order to address the harm drugs cause at street level rather than working separately at the different levels of criminality.
  • Four sites (Camden, Coventry, Bristol and Rochdale) took part in a pilot process. The Drugs Analysis and Research Programme at the Home Office conducted a through evaluation of the pilot and concluded that the ‘street level up approach’ (SLUA) had been a very positive innovative intervention that had shown some potential benefits in nearly all the areas.
  • Lessons are being learned so that SLUA can become one of the tactical options that the police service and its partners have at their disposal.
  • Members are invited to agree that the recommendation has been achieved.

C. Race and equality impact

1. Ensuring equality for all, and its implications, was of fundamental importance to this review. The implications for ensuring equality were considered throughout the analysis of each of the four themes.

2. The implementation of the SCD Central Reserve (Recommendation 2) ensures that boroughs have fast time access to advice and support thereby improving their response to critical incidents. The Operational Support Protocol (Recommendation 3) will ensure that community considerations are taken into account when proactive operations are planned. Involving boroughs at an early stage will make certain that the impact of any executive action on the community is mitigated as far as possible. Raising community awareness about the use of operational support resources (Recommendation 6) will help to raise community confidence in the MPS.

D. Financial implications

Implementation to date has been achieved within existing resources.

E. Background papers

• Management Summary of the Service Improvement Review of Operational Support Policing – previously circulated.

F. Contact details

Report author: Chief Superintendent David Morgan, MPS.

For more information contact:

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

List of abbreviations

MPA

Metropolitan Police Authority

MPS

Metropolitan Police Service

TP

Territorial Policing

CO

Central Operations

SCD 

Specialist Crime Directorate

SOCA

Serious and Organised Crime Agency

SLUA

Street Level Up Approach

CIDA

Concerted Interagency Drugs Action Group

MMDP

Middle Market Drugs Project

HMCE

Her Majesty’s Customs and Excise

NIM

National Intelligence Model

OCU

Operational Command Unit

ICG 

Internal Consultancy Group

DPA

Directorate of Public Affairs

SNT 

Safer Neighbourhood Team

NCS 

National Crime Squad

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