So much energy is consumed following the Metropolitan Police and its many inquiries, reviews and staff legal troubles that it is sometimes possible to forget that it is, at its core, a police force with no more important job than to protect Londoners. But according to the commissioners, Scotland Yard faces a financial crisis.
Sir Mark Rowley today warned of “eye-watering cuts to the services we provide to London” as the force is hit by a brewing financial crisis. The Met chief blamed not just the recent Budget or spending this year, but the “cumulative effect of decisions over the last decade or so which have put us in a more and more precarious position.”
For some time, the Met has managed to raise funds by selling off assets, such as police stations, as well as dipping into reserves. Worryingly, the commissioner states that those options had “run out”. Sir Mark is not averse to making public pronouncements or robustly defending his subordinates. Yet this intervention appears to be borne of frustration, following unsuccessful negotiations with senior politicians. And the numbers are indeed striking.
Over the summer, it was revealed that the Met was heading for its lowest staffing levels in 10 years, driven both by funding constraints and low recruitment. Sir Mark revealed that by March next year,”there will be 310 police officers per 100,000 Londoners. In March 2012, this was at 350 police officers. This position is projected to worsen and trend towards our lowest point of the last decade.”
To that end, the Met began this year 1,000 officers short of targets and is expected to end it 1,415 short. There is also a question about experience. At the start of 2024, fully 40 per cent of detective constables in local policing had fewer than two years service, while the number of applications for job roles is only around 30 per cent of the level required.
Moreover, Sir Mark warns that the fiscal squeeze is slowing down the vital reforms the Met must make, following the excoriating report by Dame Louise Casey, which branded the force institutionally sexist, racist and homophobic. Indeed, it was only May this year that the Met admitted it is “not fit to serve Londoners effectively” in its current state, as it struggles with low pay, high workloads and plummeting application numbers.
Londoners will be understandably concerned that the Met, as presently constituted, does not have the capability to keep them safe. Given widespread concerns about robbery, violence against women and girls and the policing of protests, something will have to give.
