Single Patrols

05/10
11 March 2010
MPA briefing paper 05/2010

Author: Chief Inspector McGinn, MPS

This briefing paper has been prepared to inform members and staff. It is not a committee report and no decisions are required.

Development of Single Patrol in London

In March 2009, Sir Paul Stephenson articulated his intention that officers should increase their impact on the streets of London through more effective patrolling. This effectiveness would be enhanced, primarily, through the delivery of “single patrol”.

Between June and October 2009, more than 7000 front line supervisors and leaders attended the “Policing London Seminars”. These seminars covered a range of critical issues - including both the delivery of Policing Pledge and the value and importance of Single Patrol. These seminars (and events since) have been designed to explain the benefits of single patrol to officers. Key benefits are that single patrol enhances the presence and effectiveness of officers and PCSOs on the streets, encourages intelligence gathering and gives more opportunities for interaction with the public.

In October 2009, a Police Notice (41/09) was published covering “Effective Patrol”. This notice provided a clear policy statement on patrolling activity - including the requirement that all patrolling activity, on foot and in vehicle, should start with an assumption that patrol should be “single” unless a local risk assessment dictated otherwise. Each Borough was required by this Police Notice to establish an “Effective Patrol Framework” that set out the local patrol style given the specific local risks that officers may encounter. These risk assessments consider a range of factors that may affect the appropriateness of different patrol styles. These factors include time of day, location and policing context. Effective Patrol Frameworks were completed on all Boroughs in November 2009.
In respect of MSC officers, when they complete initial training they will undertake a course of further training, which includes 'coached patrols' with a more experienced officer. It is expected that new MSC officers will take about eighteen months to reach 'Independent Patrol Status' at which point the MPS is satisfied that the MSC officer is competent and the MSC officer will be confident to patrol on their own.

Performance Management

In December 2009, a performance management framework was initiated to track the delivery of single patrolling activity. During this period (7-13 Dec), operational uniformed officers spent about a quarter (28%) of their time engaged in single patrol as opposed to other forms of operational activity (ie paired patrols or double crewing). In the most recent week (23 Feb - 1 Mar), the level of single patrol has risen to 50%. There are now an average of just under 3000 (2996) officers engaged in single patrol every day across London.

The increasing levels of single patrol are in part due to increasing compliance with a new system to monitor but also reflect a step change in the way that patrolling is delivered on the streets of London.

Common Concerns about Single Patrol

Wherever single patrol has been introduced, both within the UK and across the world, common concerns emerge. There has been concern amongst officers in terms of risks, and practicalities of dealing with incidents such as domestics. This is understood - and this is the reason for the establishment of a risk management framework that deals specifically with patrolling activity.

In terms of safety it is important to be clear that MPS policy on single patrol does not mean that officers must patrol alone whatever the situation, circumstances or risk. The MPS position is that officers should start from the basis that they patrol alone - but if the day, time, task or context justifies it, then the right level of support should be made available. In addition, MPS policy does not mean that an officer must always attend incidents, such as those involving domestic violence, on their own. The MPS position is that each incident must be risk assessed and responded to proportionately and using professional judgement.

Initial concerns from staff centred on the perceived potential for assaults on Police to increase and for officers to be subject of malicious complaints due to a lack of corroboration. Data relating to key concerns is being monitored and, to date, there is no evidence of an increase in either assaults or complaints.

Organisational Support for Single Patrol

Significant effort has been and is being made to support the necessary operational and cultural changes to support single patrol.

• Each BOCU now has a single point of contact (SPOCs) for all patrol issues, to ensure that corporate messages are rapidly and accurately disseminated to staff. Borough SPOCs also deal with any local issues or concerns about single patrolling and are able to identify and circulate best practice via an internal “Special Interest Group” (SIG) on the intranet.
• An ‘Expert User’ group’ has been established, involving patrol practitioners from across TP & other business groups to seek the views and feedback from front line officers.
• Support information and guidance including FAQs has been made available on the intranet
• All recruits now have an “Effective patrol” input, focusing on single patrol, emphasising the requirement and skills to patrol alone
• Role-play exercises taking place at the training school now also reflect lone patrolling promoting officer assessment of situations and dynamic risk assessments. MSC and PCSO training has similarly been developed along similar lines
• Officer Safety Training has been developed to focus on techniques of most use to lone officers
• Quarterly Health and Safety meetings have been set up to examine/monitor risk assessment processes to ensure officer safety is correctly being catered for.

Communication

In addition to the Policing London Seminars, the Commissioner and Management Board members have engaged in additional face to face briefings with BOCU Commanders and others. BOCU Commanders, in turn, have given face to face briefings to their own staff. Single Patrol has been a consistent theme in MPS conferences and within events such as the Commissioner’s phone in February 2010. Also in February, Ian McPherson, Assistant Commissioner (TP), hosted a live intranet forum “Ask AC/TP” which focussed on single patrol and was open to all staff. The minutes of these forums have been placed on the intranet

Single patrol has featured heavily within ‘The Job’ magazine in January & February 2010 with a further article planned for March. Aside form intranet based guidance, further work is ongoing with an external design company to develop a series of posters to publicise the value and benefits of single patrol.

Monthly meetings are taking place with the Police Federation to maintain effective communication with staff associations.

To ensure a common approach is being adopted to single patrol across London, a “Single Patrol Narrative” has been prepared and circulated to all BOCU Commanders (see Appendix A).

Conclusion

The development of single patrol is an essential part of MPS work to ensure that officers work as effectively as possible for the benefit of Londoners. This has required a cultural shift in approach to patrolling and, as such, will take time to become fully embedded. However significant progress is now being made and the results will lead to a demonstrable increase in the visibility and “presence” of Metropolitan Police Officers on the streets of London.

Appendix A: Single Patrol Narrative (Jan 2010)

London remains the safest capital city in the world and one reason for this is the professionalism of the frontline Metropolitan Police Officer. We need to make sure that London remains safe and that this professionalism is maintained and continues to be recognised.

We also need to understand the effect of people seeing us patrol in pairs. Members of the public walk around London on their own, unprotected. When they see officers patrolling together they draw their own assumptions about how safe that area is. Fear of crime has an effect on the quality of life on local people and we need to make sure that that fear is not being unnecessarily raised.

Patrolling alone has a positive impact on operational policing. It enhances the presence and effectiveness of officers and PCSOs on the streets, encourages intelligence gathering and gives us more interaction with the public.

We know that there has been concern amongst officers in terms of risks, and practicalities of dealing with incidents such as domestics. We know this, we understand this, and we have asked each borough to take responsibility for bespoke responses to their local situation by developing an Effective Patrol Framework.

We want to be clear on our approach to two common concerns:

A) We are not saying that officers must patrol alone whatever the situation, circumstances or risk. We are saying that we must start from the basis that we patrol alone but that if the day, time, task or context justifies it, then we ensure that the right level of support is available.

B) We are not saying that an officer must always attend incidents, such as domestics, on their own. Each incident must be risk assessed and responded to proportionately and using professional judgement.

Part of a risk assessment must include consideration of the equipment that officers now have (MetVest, Airwave radios along with Quikcuffs, Asps and CS Spray for police officers) and the availability of other equipment that supports officers (firearms, tasers, dogs etc). This equipment and this support are better than they have ever been.

Single patrol will be an everyday part of our operational policing response and, as a large organisation, there will be challenges. There will be concerns and there will be issues that emerge - we need to hear about these so that we can deal with them. Local ways of raising issues already exist through local Patrol SPOCS and we are in the process of setting up Q& A and other forums to hear your views. We want you to be involved, we want to know what concerns you have so that we can deal with them together.

This is a cultural challenge and is not how things may have been done in recent years - but as a service we must adapt to this cultural change within the organisation and take it forward.

We know that the public are our priority. Whilst officer safety is of critical importance and is never taken lightly, we must recognise that we are in the business of risk and community safety. Professionalism involves managing these challenges. Increasing Single patrol is important because it is a visible demonstration both of this professionalism and our intent to make the best use of all our officers so that the people of London remain safe and confident in their police service.

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