Metropolitan Police Authority - delivering progress in 21st century policing

27/03
15 April 2003

In a keynote speech at the Reform Club on 15 April 2003 Toby Harris, Chair of the MPA, outlined the MPA’s responsibilities to deliver to Londoners a police service prepared for the challenges of the 21st century. He said:

“Events in Baghdad have shown us all that a police service must be democratically accountable and cannot operate without the implicit consent of the people it polices or without the explicit consent of a democratically elected government.

“The creation of the MPA almost three years ago meant the Met for the first time became publicly accountable – like every other police service in the country – to its own police authority, rather than reporting to the Home Secretary.

“The Met has undergone many changes in its 174 year history - great leaps have been made in technological advances as well as in the public’s perspective and expectations.

“But the MPA’s role to manage change and progress is not easy in an organisation with a budget of £2.2 billion – the Met is the largest and most complex police organisation in England.

“It polices 620 square miles, deals with 1 million reported crimes each year and receives 10,000 calls a day. Annually the Met polices 2000 political demos, 100 ceremonial events, 350 major football matches and 400 other sporting fixtures. And on top of that we are now facing the highest level of terrorist threat in our nation’s history.”

Toby Harris went on to discuss some of the MPA’s achievements over the last three years:

“One of our first tasks was to ensure that, with our budget of £2.2 billion, we put in place the basic financial systems and safeguards that would be the norm in any large organisation. Our role to look for greater efficiencies has resulted in the Met making savings in excess of £100 million over three years.

“The MPA has also overseen the biggest growth in police numbers in the history of the Met. The current budget allows for an additional 1,000 police officers, 500 Community Police Support Officers, as well as a further 200 officers and 157 PCSOs for transport policing funded by Transport for London. This will give the people of London nearly 30,000 officers by March 2004, a 16% increase since the MPA was established in 2000. Obviously, growth at this rate needs a strong infrastructure and we are currently working with the Met to manage this efficiently and effectively.

“However, last week Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary, in its latest report on the Met, warned that demands facing the police are likely to continue to rise and outstrip any additional resource provision. Demand therefore has to be effectively managed and competing priorities balanced.”

Toby Harris highlighted a key priority for the MPA – how police relate to the people they serve. He continued:

“Police growth needs to be linked with appropriate policing style and effective deployment. A well-trained police service must have credibility with all the communities it serves. The Stephen Lawrence Inquiry Report was a wake up call for police and the Criminal Justice System – a final warning that unless we learnt from the tragedy and the mistakes made in the subsequent investigation, the relationship between police and the communities they serve would be forever tainted.

“The Met has worked hard to overcome its shortcomings in this area through Community and Race Relations training, leadership training, diversity and hate crime strategies and by addressing recruitment and retention of ethnic minorities.

“We have also overseen the introduction of the extended police family – Community Police Support Officers, Special Constables, and Neighbourhood and Estate Wardens - it is our responsibility to make the appropriate and effective use of these additional resources within the context of local Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships.”

Toby Harris concluded:

“London changes and develops continually and our police service must be able to react flexibly to Londoners’ needs. Police must not become isolated from the communities they serve and it is the task of the MPA to ensure that never happens. In order for police to be effective they have to share the responsibility of crime and its causes with a consenting society and work in partnership with the community and for the community.

“Lessons from Baghdad have shown clearly that, despite overwhelming military force, civil obedience still depends on policing. There are fundamental policing skills that cannot be replicated by the military or any other agencies.

“It is important that all of us work together with a sense of urgency and determination to ensure the reforms and changes in policing and the wider Criminal Justice System are delivered as promised as quickly as possible.

“Only in this way will we improve public satisfaction, decrease fear of crime and maintain and increase the credibility and respect for our police service.”

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