Andrew Dismore

Met’s response to 999 calls

Question No: 2018/2956

To: Mayor and Commissioner, MPS

Andrew Dismore

Are you satisfied by the Met’s response to 999 calls?

Written response from the Mayor

 

Please refer to my answer at MQT on 19 October. Responding to emergency calls is a fundamental responsibility of the Metropolitan Police and Londoners expect a quick and reliable service.

The challenges facing London and the Met are well known: the funding picture for London continues to be extremely difficult and as a consequence the Met must deliver its services with fewer officers – the lowest number since 2003.

999 calls are classified according to risk and priority; the 2 main categories being Immediate (I), target being to attend within 15 minutes, and Significant (S), target is to attend within 1 hour.

The Met’s primary focus is on responding to Immediate (I) calls within 15 minutes. These calls are those in which Londoners need urgent help.

For the 12 months to the end of September 2018, the Met responded to 86.9% of I graded incidents within 15 minutes compared with 85% for the 12 months to September 2017; an improvement of 1.9 percentage points.

This is against a backdrop of 2,177,747 999 calls for 2017/18 – an 8% increase on the year before, in an environment where crime is not only increasing but evolving and becoming more complex.

In respect to S calls, for the 12 months to the end of September 2018 the Met responded to 81.9% of S graded incidents within 60 minutes, compared with 77.2% for the 12 months to September 2017; an improvement of 4.7 percentage points.

Both the Mayor and the Commissioner would of course like this to be even higher – the Met’s own target is to respond to 90% of ‘I’ calls within 15 minutes; but improvements over the last year to both I and S calls are an indication of the importance and focus that the Met are giving to urgent calls for its services.

 

‘Ownership’ of cases

Question No: 2018/2958

To: Mayor and Commissioner, MPS

Andrew Dismore

Are you satisfied by the Met’s new system of ‘ownership’ of cases by individual officers on response teams?

Written response from the Mayor

 

The practice of response officers owning their own crimes is not unique to the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) and is aimed at delivering a better quality of service to victims.

Under the Basic Command Unit (BCU) model officers on response teams will own and investigate end-to-end crimes they report. This will reduce the number of ‘hand offs’ to other officers.

Fewer handovers are less confusing for the victim and prevent repetition of details that have already been captured. There is also a benefit for officers in developing their own investigative skills and understanding the broader chain of investigation.

This will free up detectives to focus on the most serious and complex of crimes that require specialist detective skills; enabling the MPS to better manage the increasing demand on its detectives.

It is important that we do not lose sight of why the BCUs came about. It is vital that the MPS is able to reorganise itself to maintain and improve its service to Londoners with fewer officers and this is the driving force behind the BCUs.

 

Use of Force Question No: 2018/2960 To: Mayor and Commissioner, MPS Andrew Dismore Reports suggest that the Met police’s use of force has increased by79% in one year; why is this? Written response from the Mayor   Since April 2017, a new recording system has been gathering use of force data electronically from a zero baseline. The data covers the full range of use of force; most use of force is at the lower end of this, such as use of compliance handcuffing. There have been incremental increases in the number of use of force incidents recorded via this means, as more officers and staff undergo the mandatory training package and become familiar in its use. This new data cannot be compared with data from previous years. It is believed that this, in addition to ongoing improvement measures to enhance compliance, are responsible for the reported increase.