MPA promotes new approach to policing the royal parks

14/04
5 March 2004

The merger of the Royal Parks Constabulary which patrols 6000 acres of London’s parks into the Metropolitan Police Service moved a step closer today when the proposal was given the go-ahead by the Metropolitan Police Authority.

Agreement was reached in 2003 for the Royal Parks Constabulary to be merged into the MPS, and for the MPS to take on the policing of London’s Royal Parks, funded by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport.

Primary legislation is needed to enable a merger to take place but in the meantime the Met will, at the request of the Secretary of State for Culture, assist in the policing of the 17 royal parks, gardens and open spaces in and around London from 1 April 2004.

Toby Harris, MPA Chair, said:

“The MPA has today authorised the formation of the Royal Parks Operational Command Unit and the necessary set up costs, to be reimbursed in full by the department of Culture, Media and Sport.

“This move has come at the request of the Secretary of State for Culture, Tessa Jowell, who has responsibility for policing the royal parks and gardens, and the Met and the Royal Parks Constabulary will work side-by-side until the full merger can take place.

“This development is good news for all those millions of visitors who use these open spaces, many of them attracted by some of London’s top attractions such as Buckingham Palace and London Zoo.

“They will now enjoy even greater levels of safety and reassurance through high-visibility patrolling appropriate to environments geared to leisure and relaxation. This style of policing fits in well with our reassurance policing and step change programmes, and we will be using police officers and Police Community Support Officers to keep our parks and gardens safe.

“There are still matters to be settled on police pensions and questions of indemnity but we are now hopeful the first step towards merger will go ahead as planned.”

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