- Source: Metropolitan Police
The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), formerly and still commonly known as the Metropolitan Police, is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement and crime prevention within Greater London. In addition, it is responsible for specialised tasks throughout the United Kingdom, such as dealing with counter-terrorism throughout the UK, and the protection of certain individuals, including the monarch, royal family, governmental officials, and other designated figures. Commonly referred to as the Met, it is also referred to as Scotland Yard or the Yard, after the location of its original headquarters in Great Scotland Yard, Whitehall in the 19th century. The Met is presently headquartered at New Scotland Yard, on the Victoria Embankment.
The main geographical area covered by the Met, the Metropolitan Police District, consists of the 32 London boroughs, and excludes the square mile of the City of London – a largely non-residential and financial district, overseen by the City of London Police. As the force responsible for the majority of UK's capital, the Met has significant responsibilities and unique challenges, such as protecting 164 foreign embassies and High Commissions, policing London City and Heathrow airports, protecting the Palace of Westminster, and managing a higher volume of protests and events than any other British police force, with 3,500 such events in 2016.
The force, by officer numbers, ranks as the largest police force within the United Kingdom and among the largest globally. Excluding its national roles, the Met oversees the eighth-smallest primary geographic area (police area) compared to other territorial police forces in the UK.
The force operates under the leadership of the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis, directly accountable to the Mayor of London, through the Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime and the Home Office. The post of commissioner was first held jointly by Sir Charles Rowan and Sir Richard Mayne, with Sir Mark Rowley currently holding the position since July 2022.
History
The Metropolitan Police Service was founded in 1829 by Home Secretary Sir Robert Peel under the Metropolitan Police Act 1829 and on 29 September of that year, the first constables of the service appeared on the streets of London. Ten years later, Metropolitan Police Act 1839 consolidated policing within London by expanding the Metropolitan Police District and either abolishing or amalgamating the various other law enforcement entities within London into the Metropolitan Police such as the Thames River Police and the Bow Street Runners.
Governance
Since January 2012, the Mayor of London is responsible for the governance of the Metropolitan Police through the Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC). The mayor is able to appoint someone to act on his behalf. As of April 2019, the office-holder is the deputy mayor for policing and crime, Sophie Linden. The work of MOPAC is scrutinised by the Police and Crime Committee (also known as a police and crime panel) of the London Assembly. These structures were created by the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011 and replaced the Metropolitan Police Authority-appointed board created in 2000 by Greater London Authority Act 1999.
Before 2000, the Metropolitan Police was under the authority of the Home Secretary, the only British territorial police force to be administered by central government. The Metropolitan Police Office (MPO), although based at Scotland Yard, was a department of the Home Office created in 1829 and was responsible for the force's day-to-day administration. Under the authority of the receiver, a civilian official who was equivalent in rank to the deputy commissioner and served as the force's chief financial officer, it was headed by a civilian secretary, who was equivalent in rank to the assistant commissioners.
Police area and other forces
The area policed by the Metropolitan Police Service is known as the Metropolitan Police District (MPD). The Met was divided into 32 Borough Operational Command Units that directly aligned with the 32 London boroughs covered. This situation has changed since 2017, as the Met has attempted to save money due to cuts in funding. The MPD is now divided into 12 Basic Command Units (BCUs) made up of two, three or four boroughs. There is criticism of these changes. The City of London (which is not a London borough) is a separate police area and is the responsibility of the separate City of London Police.
The Ministry of Defence Police is responsible for policing of Ministry of Defence property throughout the United Kingdom, including its headquarters in Whitehall and other MoD establishments across the MPD.
The British Transport Police (BTP) are responsible for policing of the rail network in Great Britain, including London. Within London, they are also responsible for the policing of the London Underground, London Trams, the London Cable Car and the Docklands Light Railway.
The English part of the Royal Parks Constabulary, which patrolled a number of Greater London's major parks, was merged with the Metropolitan Police in 2004, and those parks are now policed by the Royal Parks Operational Command Unit. There is also a small park police force, the Kew Constabulary, responsible for the Royal Botanic Gardens, whose officers have full police powers within the park. A few local authorities maintain their own borough park constabularies, including Wandsworth Parks and Events Police, Kensington and Chelsea Parks Police, Havering Parks Constabulary and the Hampstead Heath Constabulary. All of these enjoy powers of arrest without warrant as constables; however, the officers of the last mentioned have full police powers, much like officers of the Metropolitan Police, on the heath, whereas the other parks' police primarily focus on by-law enforcement.
Metropolitan Police officers have legal jurisdiction throughout all of England and Wales, including areas that have their own special police forces, such as the Ministry of Defence, as do all police officers of territorial police forces. Officers also have limited powers in Scotland and Northern Ireland. Within the MPD, the Met will take over the investigation of any serious crime from the Ministry of Defence Police and to a lesser degree BTP, if it is deemed appropriate. Terrorist incidents and complex murder enquiries will almost always be investigated by the Met, with the assistance of any relevant specialist force, even if they are committed on Ministry of Defence or railway property. A minor incursion into the normal jurisdiction of territorial police officers in England and Wales is that Met officers involved in the protection duties of the Royal Family and other VIPs have full police powers in Scotland and Northern Ireland in connection with those duties.
Organisation and structure
The Metropolitan Police Service is organised into the following directorates:
Frontline Policing
Met Operations
Specialist Operations
Professionalism
Shared Support Services (part of Met headquarters)
Each is overseen by an assistant commissioner or, in the case of administrative departments, a director of police staff, which is the equivalent civilian staff grade. The management board is made up of the commissioner, deputy commissioner, assistant commissioners and directors.
Ranks
The Metropolitan Police Service uses the standard British police ranks, indicated by epaulettes, up to chief superintendent, but uniquely has five ranks above that level instead of the standard three: commander, deputy assistant commissioner, assistant commissioner, deputy commissioner and commissioner. All senior officers of the rank of Commander and above are chief police officers of NPCC (previously ACPO) rank.
The Met approved the use of name badges in October 2003, with new recruits wearing the Velcro badges from September 2004. The badge consists of the wearer's rank, followed by their surname. All officers are assigned a unique identification number which includes a two-letter BCU (Basic Command Unit) code.
Following controversy over assaults by uniformed officers with concealed shoulder identification numbers during the G20 summit, Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson said, "the public has a right to be able to identify any uniformed officer whilst performing their duty" by their shoulder identification numbers.
= Insignia
=
The Met uniformed officer rank structure, with epaulette design, is as follows (from highest to lowest):
The Met also has several active Volunteer Police Cadet units, which maintain their own internal rank structure. The Metropolitan Special Constabulary is a contingent of part-time volunteer police officers and is attached to most Borough Operational Command Units. The Metropolitan Special Constabulary Ranks are as follows (from lowest to highest):
The prefix "woman" in front of female officers' ranks has been obsolete since 1999. Members of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) up to and including the rank of chief superintendent prefix their ranks with "detective". Detective ranks are equivalent in rank to their uniform counterparts. Other departments, such as Special Branch and Child Protection, award non-detectives "branch detective" status, allowing them to use the "Detective" prefix. None of these detective ranks confer on the holder any extra pay or supervisory authority compared to their uniformed colleagues.
= Workforce
=
The following is the current released workforce data for the ranks. The chief officers rank covers all senior ranks as well as special constables covering all special constable ranks.
Arms
The Metropolitan Police Service includes full-time, paid officers known as 'regulars', and part-time, voluntary officers from the Metropolitan Special Constabulary. Both regulars and specials enjoy full police powers, wear the same uniform, and carry the same kit. As elsewhere in the UK, 'regulars' are not employees, but rather Crown servants, and holders of the Office of Constable.
= Historic numbers
=
1852: 5,625
1866: 6,839
1877: 10,336^
1887: 14,191
1912: 20,529
1929: 19,290
1938: 18,511
1944: 17,976*
1952: 16,400
1965: 18,016
1984: 27,000 (approximate)
2001: 25,000 (approximate)
2003: 28,000 (approximate)
2004: 31,000 (approximate)
2009: 32,543 (excluding 2,622 special constables)
2010: 33,260 (excluding 3,125 special constables)
2011: 32,380 (excluding 4,459 special constables)
2013: 30,398 (excluding 5,303 special constables)
2014: 30,932 (excluding 4,587 special constables)
2015: 31,877
2016: 32,125
2017: 30,817
2019: 30,980 (excluding 1,749 special constables)
2020: 32,766 (excluding 1,874 special constables)
2024: 33,972 (excluding 1,296 special constables)
*include temporary constables from war period
^includes 753 officers policing Woolwich Arsenal and Her Majesty's Dockyards in Chatham, Portsmouth, Pembroke, Devonport and Rosyth.
= Present numbers
=
Police officers (regular – of all ranks): 33,972
Specially Trained Officers (STO): 7,615
Police officers (special – of all ranks): 1,445
Staff and PCSOs
The Met's Police Staff are non-warranted civilians. When the Met was formed in 1829 there were only six of them (the Receiver, his two clerks and the three Commissioners' clerks, although the Commissioners were also non-warranted right up until 2011), but they now include police community support officers (PCSOs), designated detention officers (DDOs), and many other non-officer roles. Their numbers are currently:
Police Community Support Officers (PCSO): 1,254
Police staff (designated detention officers): 614
Police staff (other): 9,814
Resources
= Fleet
=
As of 2023, the Met operates and maintains a fleet of around 5,200 vehicles. In 2018, the fleet covered 46,777,720 miles (75,281,440 km). The fleet comprises numerous vehicles, including:
Incident response vehicles (IRV): attached to the various Basic Command Units (BCU) of the Metropolitan Police area, used for frontline policing duties such as patrol and emergency response.
Q-cars: covert unmarked vehicles, belonging to a variety of departments.
Armed response vehicle (ARV): Transports authorised firearms officers trained to use firearms to deal with incidents involving deadly weapons.
Traffic units: respond to traffic accidents on major roads, enforce traffic laws and encourage road safety.
Motorcycles: utilised by the Roads and Transport Policing Command and Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection for more agile patrol and response.
Scrambler bikes: used by Operation Venice officers to combat moped gangs.
Collision investigation units (CIU): respond to and appropriately investigate all major road traffic collisions.
Protected carriers: used for public order duties.
Personnel carriers: used to transport numerous officers on patrol and to incidents, as well as non-violent public order situations.
Station vans: used to transport both officers and suspects in a cage in the rear of the van.
Commercial vehicle units: used to respond to incidents involving commercial vehicles.
CBRN units: used to mitigate chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear incidents. These are identified by a large amount of equipment lockers on newer vans and a large array of detecting equipment on the top of older vans.
Control units: used for incident command and control purposes.
Armoured multi-role vehicles: used for public order duties, airport and counter-terrorism duties, or as required.
General purpose vehicles: used for general support and transportation duties of officers or equipment.
Training vehicles: used to train police drivers.
Miscellaneous vehicles: such as horseboxes and trailers.
The Metropolitan Police Historic Vehicle Collection
The majority of vehicles have a service life of three to five years; the Met replaces or upgrades between 800 and 1,000 vehicles each year. Vehicles were initially maintained and repaired on contract by Babcock International; from November 2023, the contract for 3,700 of the Met's 5,200 vehicles was undertaken by Rivus Fleet Solutions for a ten-year period. Rivus fell into administration on 21 June 2024, with a deal being agreed by the Metropolitan Police to buy back its maintenance operations, saving 165 jobs.
By 2012, the Met was marking all new marked vehicles with Battenburg markings, a highly reflective material on the side of the vehicles, chequered blue and yellow green for the police, and in other colours for other services. The old livery was an orange stripe through the vehicle, with the force's logo, known colloquially as the 'jam sandwich', which was first introduced in 1978 with the delivery of high-performance Rover SD1 traffic cars. Originally, marked vehicles were finished in base white paint; this was changed to silver from 2002 to help improve a vehicle's resale value when it was retired from police use.
The National Police Air Service provides helicopter support to the Met.
A marine policing unit operates 22 vessels from its base in Wapping.
= Budget
=
Funding for the Metropolitan Police has been cut due to austerity. Changes in the way the government pays for police pensions will lead to further cuts. Its expenditure for single years, not adjusted for inflation, has been:
= Specialist units
=
Protection Command – This command is split into two branches: Royalty and Specialist Protection (RaSP) and Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection (PaDP). RaSP provides personal armed protection for the Royal family, Prime Minister and other ministers, ambassadors and visiting heads of state. PaDP is responsible for providing armed officers to protect the Palace of Westminster, important residences such as Downing Street and the many embassies found located in London. Royal Palaces are the responsibility of RaSP. The Special Escort Group (SEG) are responsible for escorting the Royal Family, Prime Minister and other ministers, ambassadors and visiting heads of state, and occasionally prisoner transport.
Aviation Policing Command – Responsible for providing policing (with the majority being armed officers) at Heathrow Airport and London City Airport.
Flying Squad – A unit which investigates and intercepts armed robberies. The name comes from the fact its members travelled across divisional and borough boundaries.
Trident Gang Crime Command – Investigates and works to prevent gang crime.
Roads and Transport Policing Command – Provides policing for the transport network in London, comprising numerous divisions: the Traffic Division, patrols the road, pursuing fleeing suspects and enforcing speed, safety, and drink driving; the Road Crime Team focuses on dangerous drivers, priority roads, uninsured vehicles and 'fatal four' offences; the Safer Transport Team (STT) provide a policing presence on Transport for London's buses and investigates most crimes committed on them.
Specialist Firearms Command – (SCO19) Responsible for providing armed response and support across the whole of London with Authorised Firearms Officers (AFO) travelling in ARVs (Armed Response Vehicles) responding to calls involving firearms and weapons. SCO19 has a number of CTSFOs (Counter Terrorist Specialist Firearms Officers), who have additional training.
Dog Support Unit – (DSU) Provides highly trained dogs and police handlers. They are trained to detect drugs and firearms, respond to searches, missing people, and fleeing suspects. Bomb-detection dogs are also used for specific duties. As of 2015 the unit had around 250 police dogs.
Marine Policing Unit – (MPU) Provides policing on the waterways of London, responding to situations in the River Thames and tracking and stopping illegal vessels entering and exiting London.
Mounted Branch – Provides policing on horseback in London. One of their duties is escorting the Royal Guard down The Mall, into and out of Buckingham Palace every morning from April to July, then occasionally through the remainder of the year. They also provide public order support and are commonly called to police football matches in the event of any unrest. All officers are trained in public order tactics on horseback. As of 2010 the Branch had 120 police horses.
Police Support Unit (PSU) – Trained to deal with a variety of public order situations outside the remit or capability of regular divisional officers.
Territorial Support Group (TSG) – Highly trained officers, specialised in public order and large-scale riots responding around London in marked Public Order Vehicles (POV) with 6 constables and a sergeant in each POV. They aim to secure the capital against terrorism, respond to any disorder in London, and reduce priority crime through borough support. They respond in highly protective uniform during riots or large disorder, protecting themselves from any thrown objects or hazards.
Violent Crime Task Force (VCTF) – Formed in April 2018, the VCTF is a pan-London proactive response team to knife and serious violent crime, made up of 300 ring-fenced and dedicated police officers who solely focus on violent crime, weapon-enabled crime and serious criminality.
Operation Venice – Formed in 2017 to deal with record-breaking moped crime in London, but also tackles different types of robbery trends; the Scorpion Team consists of highly skilled drivers and riders who were given a green light to instigate tactical contact against moped and motorbikes involved in criminality.
= Stations
=
In addition to the headquarters at New Scotland Yard, there are many police stations in London. These range from large borough headquarters staffed around the clock every day to smaller stations, which may be open to the public only during normal business hours, or on certain days of the week. In 2017, there were 73 working front counters open to the public in London. Most police stations can easily be identified from one or more blue lamps located outside the entrance, which were introduced in 1861.
The oldest Metropolitan police station, which opened in Bow Street in 1881, closed in 1992 and the adjoining Bow Street Magistrates' Court heard its last case on 14 July 2006. One of the oldest operational police stations in London is in Wapping, which opened in 1908. It is the headquarters of the marine policing unit (formerly known as Thames Division), which is responsible for policing the River Thames. It also houses a mortuary and the River Police Museum. Paddington Green Police Station, which is no longer operational, received much publicity for its housing of terrorism suspects in an underground complex prior to its closure in 2017.
In 2004, there was a call from the Institute for Public Policy Research for more imaginative planning of police stations to aid in improving relations between police forces and the wider community.
Statistics
= Crime figures
=
Crimes reported within the Metropolitan Police District, selected by quarter centuries.
1829/30: 20,000
1848: 15,000
1873: 20,000
1898: 18,838
1923: 15,383
1948: 126,597
1973: 355,258
1998/9: 934,254
2017/18: 827,225
= Detection rates
=
The following table shows the percentage detection rates for the Metropolitan Police by offence group for 2010/11.
The Metropolitan Police Service "screened out" 34,164 crimes the day they were reported in 2017 and did not investigate them further. This compares to 13,019 the previous year. 18,093 crimes were closed in 24 hours during the first 5 months of 2018 making it likely that the 2017 total will be exceeded. Crimes not being investigated include sexual assaults and arson, burglaries, thefts and assaults. Some critics believe this shows the effect of austerity on the force's ability to carry out its responsibilities.
Controversies
The Met was controversial even before its formation in 1829. Since the 1970s, such controversies have often centred on institutional racism and institutional sexism within the organisation, along with the right to protest, failures in investigations, and officers belonging to proscribed organisations.
In 2023, a report on the Metropolitan Police found that the organisation was rife with racism, misogyny, and homophobia, and was corrupt. A 363-page report written by Louise Casey, Baroness Casey of Blackstock was commissioned after the abduction of Sarah Everard by Wayne Couzens, a police constable. The report stated that 12% of female Met employees had been harassed or attacked, with 33% experiencing sexism. Other incidents include a Muslim officer who had bacon stuffed into his boots and a Sikh officer whose beard was cut. The report also found that officers of minority ethnic backgrounds were more likely to be disciplined and leave the force. The report was criticised by the charity Galop for not investigating transphobia. Five former officers admitted in court in 2023 to sending racist messages, the targets of which included the Duchess of Sussex, and a sixth was convicted after a trial. All six were given suspended jail sentences.
On 1 January 2024 the Metropolitan Police were criticised by former Prime Minister Boris Johnson for allegedly demonstrating political bias and double standards in their handling of pro-Hamas demonstrations, and their efforts to support an investigation into alleged Israeli war crimes following Israel's response to terror attacks committed by Hamas on 7 October. The Met released a statement in response stating, "As the UK's investigative authority for war crimes, counter-terrorism policing – through the Met's war crimes team – has a responsibility to support ICC investigations. The ICC opened an investigation in 2019 into alleged war crimes in Israel and Palestine." The spokesman added that "under the terms of the 1998 Rome Statute, our war crimes team is obliged to support any investigations opened by the ICC that could involve British subjects" and said the posters were put up to meet that obligation.
In April 2024, the Met settled a claim for misfeasance in a public office and false imprisonment by agreeing to pay a five-figure sum as damages to a French publisher who had been arrested and detained under anti-terrorism laws while he was on his way to a book fair in London.
In August 2024, a report by His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services said that the Met was rated inadequate or failing regarding crime investigations and managing offenders. It was rated as requiring improvement in five other areas, and as adequate in one.
In September 2024, His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services issued a report regarding the Met’s handling of the pro-Palestinian protests, saying that the Met had been largely impartial. The report criticised the then Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and the then Home Secretary Suella Braverman for suggesting otherwise.
In November 2024, it was found that the Metropolitan Police were told about allegations of sexual assault against Mohamed Al-Fayed, the late businessman and owner of Harrods, ten years earlier than it had acknowledged. The Met had claimed that it first received such allegations in 2005. However, in 1995, the Met had received such allegations from Samantha Ramsay, who is now deceased. The BBC reported that "Samantha’s family say the Met dismissed her claims. They believe that multiple women could have been saved from sexual abuse if the force had acted." The Met claimed that there was no history of Samantha's allegations on their computer system, "but that in 1995 some reports were paper-based and might not have been transferred." Ramsay's sister, Emma, recalled the police as having said at the time: Emma recalls that the police told Samantha: “We’ve added it to a pile of other female names that we’ve got that have made the same complaint against Mohamed Al Fayed.” On 8 November, the Independent Office for Police Conduct announced that they would be investigating the Met over their handling of allegations of sexual misconduct related to the case.
See also
Other London emergency services:
London's Air Ambulance Charity
London Ambulance Service
London Fire Brigade
City of London Police
Notes
References
External links
Official website
Metropolitan Police at His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services
Inspector Denning – Victorian Police in Westminster – UK Parliament Living Heritage
Parliamentary Archives, Records of the Metropolitan Police Archived 15 August 2021 at the Wayback Machine
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