The UK’s biggest police force is providing an inadequate or failing service in seven of eight key crime-fighting areas, and there are “serious concerns” about its management of dangerous offenders, according to an official inspection.
The report on the Metropolitan police was described as “devastating” by one Whitehall source and comes after the Met commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, who took office almost two years ago, vowed sweeping reforms.
In one startling finding, the report found that in several areas of London, the force was warning sex offenders they were going to be visited, rather than conducting spot checks.
Today’s report by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) backed the aims of Rowley’s plans, but said the public were not seeing enough improvements.
It warned that among the Met’s middle-manager ranks such as “chief inspector, inspector and sergeant levels” there was “limited knowledge and understanding of the plan”.
The Met has been in special measures, known officially as Engage, since June 2022, and looks likely to remain so for the rest of this year at least.
In 2022, inspectors found the Met good in just one area, adequate in two, substandard in five and inadequate in one. The way inspections have since carried out has changed, and some police chiefs complain the examinations are tougher.
The new report found the Met was rated inadequate or failing in two areas: crime investigations and managing offenders.
Both aspects have worsened, in the view of inspectors, since they were examined two years ago. The Met is now half as likely as other forces to solve a victim-based crime, the report says.
In the latest inspection, the Met required improvement in five areas – preventing crime, responding to the public, protecting vulnerable people, creating a positive workplace, and leadership and force management – and was judged adequate in one area: the use of police powers and how the public are treated.
Lee Freeman, the lead inspector on the report, said officers were breaking practice by forewarning sex offenders of impending visits.
On investigating crime, inspectors found:
• Crimes such as “indecent images of children, extra-familial child abuse and sexual offences were being investigated by new recruits”.
• The force did not give a good enough level of service to victims in 39 of the 191 cases examined.
• The quality of investigations “for neighbourhood crimes was generally poor, and lines of inquiry weren’t always identified or pursued”.
• The Met was less likely to catch criminals for regular crimes, such as theft, assaults and vehicle crime, than other forces.
• Crimes were investigated by often overworked neighbourhood teams, suffering from inexperience and poor supervision.
The inspectorate said: “In the year ending 30 September 2023, the Metropolitan police service recorded 789,544 victim-based crimes.
“Of these, 4.1% were assigned an outcome of ‘offences brought to justice’. This was lower than expected compared [with] the 9.8% average for forces in England and Wales. More specifically, 3.1% were assigned a ‘charged/summonsed’ outcome. This was lower than the average across all forces in England and Wales of 6.3%.”
Managing offenders and suspects was also rated as inadequate.
In one case, a high-risk registered sex offender was not visited for six years, despite eight attempts. The inspectorate said: “There had been no proactive consideration of arresting the individual or issuing a warrant.”
HMICFRS accepted protests had placed the force under extra strain and increased the demands on it.
A Met spokesperson said: “Since this inspection took place, we have already agreed a plan to move forward from the enhanced HMICFRS monitoring (known as ‘Engage’).
“We are now reflecting carefully on the findings, the core of which reflect our A New Met for London plans and the briefing we gave to the HMIC. We will continue to work closely with the inspectorate, the Mayor’s office for policing and crime, and other partners to improve delivery for Londoners.”
Behind the scenes, there is little or no sense the poor inspection report immediately puts Rowley’s position in doubt. In part, that is because his reform plan is seen as the right idea, and it is accepted that the Met’s problems are huge, longstanding and will take time to turn around.
But also there are concerns at the Met’s “defensiveness” and, according to one Whitehall insider, there simply is not another potential commissioner of the stature needed to take on the job: “What is plan B?” said the source.
The commissioner retains the confidence of the two people who can oust him, namely the Mayor of London and the home secretary.
Freeman said it would be wrong to say the Met had gone backwards since the last inspection. It had improved the speed at which it answers calls, he said, and there were pockets of very good policing and management, but too often there were failings and concerns.
Freeman said: “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.”
The home secretary, Yvette Cooper, came to power last month promising to be more hands-on in improving policing. A Home Office spokesperson said: “This report raises serious issues on performance which need to be addressed in the Met transformation programme. Work is needed at pace to drive improvement.
“Victims of crime in London and across the country must be able to expect the highest standards from those trusted with keeping them safe, and the home secretary will look to see a rapid and robust response to this report to strengthen public confidence in policing in the capital.”
The Met faces two special further inspections from HMICFRS, one into child protection and another on the failings identified in the new report.
The Met also faces a reinspection two years on from the devastating Casey report, which found the force to be institutionally biased against women and ethnic minorities, among others, after the scandal of Wayne Couzens, a Met officer who kidnapped Sarah Everard from a London street and murdered her. That reinspection will take place early next year.
The report cites concerns about the Met’s funding, warning of a looming £400m budget shortfall, and failure to recruit more officers, which will only get worse, according to the commissioner’s warnings.
The report said: “We found many examples of new recruits not feeling welcomed on to teams as part of their first posting. This wasn’t always being appropriately dealt with by supervisors.”
