Central Operations Directorate Management information

Report: 7
Date: 14 September 2006
By: Commissioner

Summary

This report is a summary of Central Operations (CO) performance, against key objectives from 1 April 2006 to 30 June 2006, providing commentary on highlights and exceptions, including examples of operational success. In addition, information will be provided that describes developments in the Central Operations target setting and performance management regime and the progress being made in developing Capital City Policing measures.

A. Recommendation

That

1. members note current performance within Central Operations; and
2. the development of Capital City Policing measures and performance framework.

B. Supporting information

Introduction

1. This report on CO performance is structured to highlight:

• Current operational performance and associated challenges with particular reference to traffic and transport
• The current performance regime within CO; and
• The development of CO performance measures with specific regard to high level measures for the concept of Capital City Policing.

Current operational performance

2. Central Operations performance against current policing plan indicators is set out in appendix 1 – following the traffic light format agreed at December’s PPRC.

3. Performance highlights of the first quarter of this planning year include the policing of events, supporting boroughs and the tasking process, providing a more citizen-focused call management system and traffic enforcement activity.

4. The professional and efficient policing of events is critical to Londoners’ safety and perceptions of safety. Demand for CO11 Public Order Branch has increased and they have planned and delivered 35% more events in this quarter compared to the same period last year. CO11 has not only managed to police these events safely and professionally but also improved efficiency by deploying 2% fewer officers to these events.

5. Central Operations has continued to provide exceptional support to boroughs and other Business Groups through the provision of specialist tactics and personnel. Highlights include:

• Air Support Unit achieving 96% flying time in support of MPS priorities
• General Purpose Dogs achieving 87% availability
• Marine Support Unit exceeding their target for high visibility searches of vulnerable security sites by a massive 400%
• Armed Response Vehicles attending 83% of calls within 12 minutes
• TSG achieving 29% arrest rate from stops

6. Central Operations has played an integral role in supporting the Together Tasking process tackling operational priorities. During the period 1 April 2006 to 30 June 2006, 221 centrally funded deployments were carried out by CO teams. The bulk of these (41.2%) have used the services of CO20 Territorial Support Group (TSG), and have focused mainly on robbery and Safer Streets initiatives with a small number of gun crime operations.

7. Metcall continues to improve the MPS’ citizen-focus. 93% of non-emergency calls were answered within 30 seconds, exceeding the national call-handling target.

8. Further examples of operational success by Central Operations teams can be found at Appendix 2.

Traffic and transport

9. CO provides the corporate lead in respect of delivering key areas of performance for the travelling public in London.

10. Casualty figures, as measured by the number of persons killed and seriously injured on London’s roads, are returning to target levels of 277 month following a rise in the trend over the last twelve months. The average for 2006/07 to date is 286 per month, compared with 326 per month over last year. Although a direct correlation between enforcement activity and the reduction in road casualties can never be conclusively proven, the first quarter of the current planning year has seen a growth in productivity surrounding the CO15 Traffic OCU Drink/Drive campaign where activity levels have been high throughout the summer period. The number of arrests in June for Drink/Driving offences was the highest ever and this has been backed up with higher than average issue levels for Fixed Penalty Notices (FPNs) in support of the Think! Campaign.

11. The number of summonses issued for camera cases by CO16 Traffic Criminal Justice Unit has shown an upturn so far this year. The monthly average for the previous financial year was 378 and this is the baseline against which this year’s performance will be judged; the average for the first three months of this year is 515.

12. Within the bus network, corridors patrolled by CO17 Transport OCU (TOCU) are consistently performing better than the rest of the network. Reliability is affected by disruption to journeys through incidents on the buses, traffic congestion and lost mileage. Transport OCU reports a 16% rise in the number of Penalty Charge Notices (PCN) issued in the first quarter compared with last year. PCN issue rates have increased by more than five per officer. This activity contributes towards the reduction of congestion within the bus corridors and is reflected in improving customer satisfaction with bus reliability - although it is always difficult to disaggregate precisely what TOCU contributes to this performance and what difference arises from improvements by the operating companies.

13. Satisfaction with journey times has also improved slightly over the previous quarter. However, this is one indicator where TOCU will always struggle with in comparison to the non-TOCU routes as the corridors have been chosen because of their long history of problems. There are significant and ongoing road works across TOCU routes at the moment, particularly around Hackney and Seven Sisters that make it difficult to improve satisfaction scores for journey times.

14. Passenger perception of safety/security on-bus on TOCU routes is causing some concern. Levels during the second quarter 2005 dipped because of the July terrorist attacks but these made a strong recovery during Q3 achieving one of the best ever scores in comparison with the rest of network. However the last two quarter’s figures reveal rising concern possibly related to the volume of under-16 travel since it became free: there is some evidence that the numbers of under-16 victims and offenders are rising.

15. The share of bus related crime has fallen proportionately on the TOCU corridors when compared against the rest of the network. Generally, it is the outer boroughs that are reporting more disturbances on buses whilst the number of ‘code red’ calls has remained steady on TOCU corridors. Analyses continue, which includes an examination of survey data for individual routes; this is being conducted in conjunction with TfL. A similar survey for LUL shows that perception of safety on tube trains has fluctuated below the previous years average in a similar way to buses but not to the same degree. Annual numbers of bus journeys are still increasing, with a sharp increase in night bus use.

16. At bus stops and shelters, passenger perceptions of safety/security have held up well on TOCU corridors when compared against the remainder of the network. As officers are more visible in the street than they are when travelling on buses TOCU operations gain more attention on the pavement than on the buses. This may help to explain why perceptions of safety/security at bus stops and shelters are broadly the same for TOCU and non-TOCU corridors.

Performance management within Central Operations

Current performance regime

17. Central Operations was created in April 2005 and as a relatively new business group presents some significant challenges in terms of performance management.

18. The business group performance management framework operates on two levels, one cycle driving performance at the OCU level and another, over-arching process at the business group level.

19. Each OCU has a process owned by the OCU Commander that reports to a specified command team member. Key performance areas are decided locally but with due regard to business group/corporate requirements. There is a monthly review cycle where performance issues are highlighted by a monthly management report (MMR) and improvements are delivered through local action plans.

20. At a business group level the management of strategic objectives is owned by the Deputy Assistant Commissioner of Central Operations (DAC CO). This management regime is intended to provide oversight of all OCU performance as well as providing governance specifically to achieving CO’s contribution to the policing plan.

21. Performance is monitored in three dimensions:

a. Key outcomes – CO performance has conventionally been measured by output – arrests, operations completed etc. We are at present trying to extend this focus to incorporate and develop the outcomes that best signify CO performance. Currently traffic (road death and serious injury); transport (safety, security and flow on the relevant bus network) and traffic prosecution have been addressed. The business group is now tackling areas of business where outcomes have been traditionally more difficult to define e.g. clubs and vice and firearms support. The approach is illustrated in Appendix C.

b. Critical business activity at a business-group level These are measures that reflect the ‘health’ of the business group e.g. in respect of attendance management, mandatory training etc. They are being discussed and developed at the monthly CO performance meeting. They apply across all OCUs and contribute to the effectiveness and efficiency of the business group and include measures such as spends against financial plan, staff gender and diversity profiles and absence management.

c. OCU performance - this focuses on the performance of an individual OCU, highlighting their internal monthly performance report (MMR) and the link to business group outcomes. It provides a link and quality assurance function to the local performance cycle.

d. These elements of performance are discussed at a monthly business group performance meeting.

22. The performance meeting structure is supported by OCU visits conducted by the DAC CO. These coincide with the Senior Management Team meeting for the OCU and perform a number of useful functions:

• As a ‘reality check’ for the DAC to ensure that performance messages are being communicated to all levels
• As an opportunity for staff that might not always have regular access to the DAC to raise performance issues
• As a means of checking actions raised during the formal round of performance meetings and
• As a means of linking financial and operational performance

23. The business support function within CO has now been strengthened to provide additional capacity to develop CO high-level objectives, analyse business group performance and provide an elementary inspection function to support OCUs with performance challenges.

Developing the performance structure

Capital city policing measures

24. The 2006/7 policing plan set the objective to develop high-level capital city policing measures.

25. London is unique. The most diverse city in the world, an economic powerhouse matched only by New York and Tokyo, a world creative and cultural centre and the seat of national government. No other city in the world presents such a range of policing challenges. The Capital City measures need to reflect the range of policing services required to maintain London’s status as a world city. As a starting point in progressing the measure, Central Operations has analysed the Mayor’s strategic vision for London and provisionally identified a number of outcomes that the police in London need to deliver to help fulfil his vision of an ‘exemplary, sustainable world city’.

26. This work within Central Operations will now continue in consultation with other business groups and the MPA to further develop and agree these capital city outcomes. The adoption of the MPS capital city measures should provide more in the way of high-level performance measures for Central Operations.

Service measures

27. CO undertakes a significant specialist support function to other business groups. These ‘service measures’ are already collected by some units, but need to be developed to capture a more coherent picture of the levels of satisfaction provided by CO units to both colleagues and to communities.

List of abbreviations

ANPR

Automated Number Plate Recognition

ARV

Armed Response Vehicle

ASU

Air Support Unit

BOCU

Borough Operational Command Unit

BTP

British Transport Police

CJU

Criminal Justice Unit

CO

Central Operations

CO4

Disclosure Service OCU

CO10

Central Communications Command Unit

CO11

Public Order Branch OCU

CO12

Olympics OCU

CO14

Clubs and Vice OCU

CO15

Traffic OCU

CO16

Centralised Traffic Criminal Justice OCU

CO17

Transport OCU

CO19

Force Firearms OCU

CO20

Territorial Support Group OCU

COMMR

Central Operations Monthly Management Report

CSS

Customer Satisfaction Survey

DAC

Deputy Assistant Commissioner

DAC

CO Deputy Assistant Commissioner of Central Operations

EWMS

Emerald Warrant Management System

FET

Firearms Enquiry Team

FPN

Fixed Penalty Notice

KSI

Killed or Seriously Injured

LOCOG

London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games

MMR

Monthly Management Report

MPA

Metropolitan Police Authority

MPS

Metropolitan Police Service

NIPs

Notices of Intended Prosecution

NSY

New Scotland Yard

OCU

Operational Command Unit

ODA

Olympic Delivery Authority

PA

Public Announcement

PC

Police Constable

PCN

Penalty Charge Notice

PCSO

Police Community Support Officer

PND

Penalty Notice for Disorder

PPAF

Policing Performance Assessment Framework

SFO

Specialist Firearms Officer

SLA

Service Level Agreement

TDA

Taking and Driving Away

TOCU

Transport Operational Command Unit

TSG

Territorial Support Group

C. Race and equality impact

Members are asked to note that, following the appointment of a Diversity Co-ordinator for Central Operations future reports are likely to contain analysis designed to extend our understanding of any implications.

D. Financial implications

The performance management function for Central Operations was included in the original business case for the creation of Central Operations Directorate and, as such, no additional costs will be incurred as a result of the development and management of this performance framework.

E. Background papers

None

F. Contact details

Report author: Robert Jennings and Graeme Keeling, Central Operations, MPS

For more information contact:

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

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