Metropolitan Police must do more to investigate crime and manage offenders and suspects
There are ongoing concerns about how the Metropolitan Police investigates crime and manages offenders and suspects, the police inspectorate has said.
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PEEL 2023–2025: An inspection of Metropolitan Police
His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) graded the Metropolitan Police’s performance across eight areas of policing. It found the force was adequate in one area, requires improvement in five areas and inadequate in two areas.
The inspectorate said that the force had improved its response to the public and that the majority of 999 and 101 calls are now answered quickly.
But inspectors found significant issues in the standards of investigations and care for victims, particularly in those offences allocated to local teams. They said that the force must improve the quality and supervision of its investigations to ensure better outcomes for victims. The management of offenders and suspects was also a serious concern, with inconsistencies and delays seen.
The capital sees a higher level of recorded incidents per 100,000 population, compared with the England and Wales average. Yet the force has an inexperienced workforce, including both investigators and their supervisors. Continued recruitment challenges are also preventing the force from having the number of officers it needs.
In June 2022, HMICFRS placed the Metropolitan Police into its enhanced monitoring stage, Engage. This process helps to provide additional scrutiny and support from across the policing sector to help the force continue to make improvements.
His Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary Lee Freeman said:
“The unique challenges facing the Metropolitan Police are not underestimated. Policing the capital city places additional strain on the force and its leadership, as the force tirelessly manages protests, state visits and royal occasions, and national and international sporting events.
“In parallel, the force is in the midst of an organisational-wide transformation, which is significant in both its size and scale. While it was evident in my inspection that many key changes have and are being made, they are not yet translating into consistent and sustained improvements in some key areas.
“While I commend the force for the progress it has made in answering the public’s calls quickly, I have serious concerns about how the force is currently investigating crime and how it manages offenders and suspects.
“I am aware that before our inspection, the force had already recognised the need to achieve better outcomes for victims. However, these plans have not yet led to consistent improvements across the whole force, and more work needs to be done to make sure that this happens.
“We will continue to monitor the Metropolitan Police under our Engage process, and I look forward to seeing the further progress made.”
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PEEL 2023–2025: An inspection of Metropolitan Police
Notes
- For further information, please contact the HMICFRS Press Office on 0300 071 6781 or HMICPressOffice@hmicfrs.gov.uk.
- In 2014, we introduced our police effectiveness, efficiency and legitimacy (PEEL) inspections, which assess the performance of all 43 police forces in England and Wales. Since then, we have been continuously adapting our approach.
- We have continued our intelligence-led, continual assessment approach, rather than the annual PEEL inspections we used in previous years.
- We have also changed our approach to graded judgments. We now assess forces against the characteristics of good performance, and we more clearly link our judgments to causes of concern and areas for improvement.
- It isn’t possible to make direct comparisons between the grades awarded in this PEEL inspection and those from the previous cycle of PEEL inspections. This is because we have increased our focus on making sure forces are achieving appropriate outcomes for the public, and in some cases, we have changed the aspects of policing we inspect.
- Read more information about the PEEL assessment framework 2023-2025.