London Metropolitan policing techniques reflect changing demographics

The deputy commissioner spoke about trends and budgeting to MBA students at Cass Business School

One of the main challenges for senior officers in London’s Metropolitan Police Service is to develop policing techniques that reflect changing demographics. The main demands on an officer’s time are complex cases, often involving child protection and requiring interaction with other organisations such as health services. Missing persons' cases can now be extremely complex, and resources across the force are occupied with human trafficking crimes and jihadists leaving for Syria.

Craig Mackey, Deputy Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service, spoke about trends and budgeting in a lecture to MBA students at Cass Business School, City University London. He also described implementation of technology including body-worn video cameras and a “typical Saturday”

Use of body-worn CCTV cameras

At the technological level, the deputy commissioner described the implementation of a major body-worn CCTV camera programme. By spring of next year, 16,000 of Mackey’s officers will have been issued with cameras, and the Met is confident that the equipment will facilitate evidence gathering, notably in cases of domestic violence.

Mackey’s superior, Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis, is on record as saying that use of video from body-worn cameras assists conviction rates in terms of decisions on charging when referring cases to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). The £9m expenditure has the full support of the mayor, Boris Johnson. Deputy Commissioner Mackey spoke about co-operation with U.S. police forces, and it should be noted that late last year, President Obama proposed federal investment of a minimum of $20m in similar cameras as part of a 50% matching agreement at state and county level.

The deputy commissioner interacted closely with his audience at the London Transport Museum, constantly asking them to speculate about technological changes and the types of device they use in their daily lives. He developed this theme even to the point of suggesting that most employed people (as opposed to those working for themselves) will know their way around their own smart devices better than the equipment on their office desk, and their personal devices are likely to be more intuitive. This is the only point on which I would question Mackey’s argument, believing that he has underestimated the prevalence of a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) culture.

Mackey’s overview included the observation that there is no monopoly on good ideas, and the Met will be taking the broadest possible look at itself in the run-up to forthcoming cuts, notably when squeezing its 26% non-front-line staff down to 15%.

“We’ve got to have confidence that suppliers are doing the right thing for the police service, we must make sure that we’re inclusive in terms of hearing every voice and must also carry out a Star Chamber-type review. Are we really hearing the widest range of voices and even if we hear them, are we listening to them and valuing them? We’re in a process where we’re taking the cost out of what we do but also improving services for the people of London. The two are not mutually exclusive. And I want to work with colleagues who have perhaps learnt from the odd mistake and have a few battle scars. As I talk to international headhunters I’m constantly asking: ‘At what point do you move beyond being a really good operations director and start to understand the wider perspective of your business?’”

Challenges

Deputy Commissioner Mackey continued by describing the previous Saturday night in terms of the Met’s policing responsibilities. “We had an English Defence League (EDL) march in Waltham Forest, a major rugby tournament at Twickenham, a couple of ‘flash’ protests at embassies and a Premiership football match. That’s normal but you might like to think about the scale of the operations.”

Mackey also discussed subtle aspects of policy on uniforms according to context. “We have visible policing and we have staff in plain clothes. In terms of the events I’ve described from Saturday, we want visible policing and officers who can interact immediately. To some extent we mix what we’re wearing with what we’re doing. If you’re trying to get into the supply chain of guns or drugs, you can’t do that in size 11 boots and a serge suit.”

One of the many merits of the deputy commissioner’s lecture (which was delivered with extreme fluency and no notes) was the manner in which it combined discussion of conventional (if large-scale) theft such as the £200m Hatton Garden safe deposit burglary of the previous month with a review of cybercrime. Since Mackey gave his talk, nine suspects have been arrested in connection with the Hatton Garden heist.

The MBA student audience was an international one. This talk will hopefully have inspired a few high-flyers to consider graduate entry to police forces and the lecture showed how closely the Met works with manufacturers of surveillance equipment and the value it puts on innovative technology.