The point you omit to mention is this, I believe. The MPS gets extra resources - cash and personnel - by virtue of its additional responsibilities. They are, in themselves, a legacy of the fact that until Beaujolais John agreed to change it, for historic reasons the MPS’ ‘police authority’ was the Home Secretary which, (sorry Counties), made it special and unique.
It was quite obvious to me that once the MPS came under the parochial ‘Mayor of London’ that it was quickly going to become political and also Tuppenny Ha’penny London local politicians were going to posture and pose that the MPS needs to lose its national responsibilities so those resources could be redirected to address “London’s problems”. (I believe in the end it was the Green’s Caroline Lucas who flew this kite a few years ago? I may be wrong.) It’s a great grandstanding piece for them, showing their pro-London credentials.
Of course, lose the responsibilities, lose the resources so when (not ‘if’, sadly) the Met becomes the Londonshire Constabulary to be redesigned by Chairman Khan in a year or so, they may find that, like the ‘Capital City Precept’ the counties will be bidding to get a share of that. The way public order has gone, with the MPS seemingly unable or unwilling to bear the brunt of large scale events and calling on mutual aid seemingly at least once a year now, I see that the Londonshire service is going to be very much smaller.
Of course, NCA, MI5, SFO old uncle Tom Cobbley and all will be setting out their pitch to hive off these central functions that they can, getting with them the funding and resourcing, and actually, it makes sense for that to happen.
The future policing arrangements for London twenty or so years down the line will be infinitely smaller and less ambitious than the Old Metropolitan Police I fear. West Mids has something like 7.5k officers according to Google and includes Birmingham and covers a population of 2.93 million (figs from Google). That would make a future MPS around 15-18k personnel I estimate. That is assuming that it stays a unitary body of course, and not broken into a Central and Outer London Constabulary, as was mooted in the 1990s.
I remember when they brought in the Mayoralty this was predicted, and so came to pass. The wheel will turn again I suppose, but in the meanwhile we are where we are. Which is up merde creek without a paddle. I also know Bernie looked at this and soon realised the amount of money central government poured into the MPS as part of national responsibilities, money which TP / SO piggy-backed on.
The majority of War Crimes investigated are ones where the suspect or informant is in the UK, usually London. I think there is a role to prosecuting them. It can't be right that someone who incited the butchery of 80,000 people is living scott free in E16. Also it's dealt with by a single pod and they aren't that busy with it. NCA don't appear to have the appetite to take on any CT functions either.
Fair comments. Im not suggesting it shouldn't be investigated, just by whom. Is this 'CT'? (No). I'll save the relative busy-ness of SO15 pods for another time, though. Part of the strength of the SO13 system was its relatively small size - it could expand when it needed bodies for reactive investigations by bussing people in.
This case is also different, this isn't 'war criminal 'a' is at the following address', it's a speculative appeal borne of a wider (contested and politically sensitive) investigation launched by the UN / ICC. Of course, there's still a legitimate need for law enforcement involvement in this stuff.
As for the NCA - I'm not really interested in whether they want the work or not! They want to be Federales. Let them be Federales.
What's your view on State Threat work then? Should that go elsewhere, as it's now one of the 3 central "missions". I'm not sure if I've got an opinion on it yet.
Create an intelligence and security policing directorate with the best bits of SB. Nothing too big, just experienced detectives and intelligence people who can triage cases and put together packages to expedite them. OSA jobs are a prime example. Espionage / counterintelligence? Again, they could deal with that. Does it belong under the aegis of CT given the existing relationship with the agencies? Possibly, but not exclusively. CT has a way of consuming all that kneels before it, the new dept needs the authority to say no and stick to its own priorities. The BIG question - do you co-located it with NCA and make it akin to a US-style taskforce model?
The "trench warfare" between MPS SO15 and the NCA did get a public airing at the time. I always wondered what the stance was of SO15's partner agency? Certainly at times missions were complicated by the seeming arrogance of SO15 towards "county" partners. The partner agency once it had regional offices seemed to get amicably with chief officers, indeed some staff relished not bing in London. Just to add to the mix, how would the NCA "takeover" work in Northern Ireland? Best left alone i suspect is the advice to ministers from their advisers.
SO15's unfortunate attitude with other forces is a matter of record, I'm certainly not defending them in that regard. All I will say is some smaller forces let their enmity towards the Met cloud their judgement occasionally. As for NI? There be dragons. And now JB is in charge, a man with no time for special branches, I'm sure everything will be just fine!
In fairness it wasn’t just the County Forces. As a former member of the SLT in a large South London Borough, having SO15 on the plot could be like being at the receiving end of a seagull attack - lots of shouting and flapping and end up covered in guano.
During the investigation into a major incident I was the ‘on-call’ and ‘told’ by a DC that 15 were going to visit a premises to get its CCTV. I had invested a lot of effort into building a relationship with this premises and knew this would not go down well. I asked to speak to the Inspector, and eventually spoke with him. I explained that whilst there were no ‘no-go’ zones on my borough so far as I was concerned, there would be backlash for me. If it was a necessary action then so be it, but I wanted reassurance that there actually was an upside to it that justified the pain. I explained that certainly if needed we’d assist or back them if it was required but the CCTV would show nothing because I had told the premises many times their system was old and they continually recorded over and over on the same tapes over two weeks. As the information 15 were looking for was months before, they were not going to find it. I wanted to be reassured that the inevitable fallout in my community relations was for a worthwhile cause and not just to ‘tick a box’. Luckily the DI I spoke to understood and put the action - a purely HOLMES generated thing by the way - on hold pending consideration by the grown-ups. I never heard another thing about it.
Later in the same investigation my troops went to do a S18 on my ground and found 15 already there doing a warrant. I brought this up on the conference call we were having thrice daily at the time. I explained as ex-SO12 I understood ‘need-to-know’. However, I sometimes needed to know too. I wasn’t asking for prior knowledge days or even hours in advance, but it was common sense for non-borough units to put on a CAD message to say they were going through a door at the time of doing it, if only so local units could go to their assistance if needed! Other borough reps chimed in that this was not a unique incident.
It made no difference at all.
We had borough liaison officers, ex-SB guys who I knew from the old days. I brought this up with them and it turned out they weren’t even being told these things! Whilst no apologist for SB in its old form, I genuinely believe they would have had more political ‘nouse’ than 15 ever demonstrated.
Another useful acronym for NCA is "Never Caught Anyone"
Happy New Year Dom… glad to see you back.
The point you omit to mention is this, I believe. The MPS gets extra resources - cash and personnel - by virtue of its additional responsibilities. They are, in themselves, a legacy of the fact that until Beaujolais John agreed to change it, for historic reasons the MPS’ ‘police authority’ was the Home Secretary which, (sorry Counties), made it special and unique.
It was quite obvious to me that once the MPS came under the parochial ‘Mayor of London’ that it was quickly going to become political and also Tuppenny Ha’penny London local politicians were going to posture and pose that the MPS needs to lose its national responsibilities so those resources could be redirected to address “London’s problems”. (I believe in the end it was the Green’s Caroline Lucas who flew this kite a few years ago? I may be wrong.) It’s a great grandstanding piece for them, showing their pro-London credentials.
Of course, lose the responsibilities, lose the resources so when (not ‘if’, sadly) the Met becomes the Londonshire Constabulary to be redesigned by Chairman Khan in a year or so, they may find that, like the ‘Capital City Precept’ the counties will be bidding to get a share of that. The way public order has gone, with the MPS seemingly unable or unwilling to bear the brunt of large scale events and calling on mutual aid seemingly at least once a year now, I see that the Londonshire service is going to be very much smaller.
Of course, NCA, MI5, SFO old uncle Tom Cobbley and all will be setting out their pitch to hive off these central functions that they can, getting with them the funding and resourcing, and actually, it makes sense for that to happen.
The future policing arrangements for London twenty or so years down the line will be infinitely smaller and less ambitious than the Old Metropolitan Police I fear. West Mids has something like 7.5k officers according to Google and includes Birmingham and covers a population of 2.93 million (figs from Google). That would make a future MPS around 15-18k personnel I estimate. That is assuming that it stays a unitary body of course, and not broken into a Central and Outer London Constabulary, as was mooted in the 1990s.
Politicians should be careful what they wish for.
I remember when they brought in the Mayoralty this was predicted, and so came to pass. The wheel will turn again I suppose, but in the meanwhile we are where we are. Which is up merde creek without a paddle. I also know Bernie looked at this and soon realised the amount of money central government poured into the MPS as part of national responsibilities, money which TP / SO piggy-backed on.
The majority of War Crimes investigated are ones where the suspect or informant is in the UK, usually London. I think there is a role to prosecuting them. It can't be right that someone who incited the butchery of 80,000 people is living scott free in E16. Also it's dealt with by a single pod and they aren't that busy with it. NCA don't appear to have the appetite to take on any CT functions either.
Fair comments. Im not suggesting it shouldn't be investigated, just by whom. Is this 'CT'? (No). I'll save the relative busy-ness of SO15 pods for another time, though. Part of the strength of the SO13 system was its relatively small size - it could expand when it needed bodies for reactive investigations by bussing people in.
This case is also different, this isn't 'war criminal 'a' is at the following address', it's a speculative appeal borne of a wider (contested and politically sensitive) investigation launched by the UN / ICC. Of course, there's still a legitimate need for law enforcement involvement in this stuff.
As for the NCA - I'm not really interested in whether they want the work or not! They want to be Federales. Let them be Federales.
What's your view on State Threat work then? Should that go elsewhere, as it's now one of the 3 central "missions". I'm not sure if I've got an opinion on it yet.
Create an intelligence and security policing directorate with the best bits of SB. Nothing too big, just experienced detectives and intelligence people who can triage cases and put together packages to expedite them. OSA jobs are a prime example. Espionage / counterintelligence? Again, they could deal with that. Does it belong under the aegis of CT given the existing relationship with the agencies? Possibly, but not exclusively. CT has a way of consuming all that kneels before it, the new dept needs the authority to say no and stick to its own priorities. The BIG question - do you co-located it with NCA and make it akin to a US-style taskforce model?
15 and services are already co-located. Hard to unpick.
The E16 example was a fiction created at random, before anyone tries to ID someone!
The "trench warfare" between MPS SO15 and the NCA did get a public airing at the time. I always wondered what the stance was of SO15's partner agency? Certainly at times missions were complicated by the seeming arrogance of SO15 towards "county" partners. The partner agency once it had regional offices seemed to get amicably with chief officers, indeed some staff relished not bing in London. Just to add to the mix, how would the NCA "takeover" work in Northern Ireland? Best left alone i suspect is the advice to ministers from their advisers.
SO15's unfortunate attitude with other forces is a matter of record, I'm certainly not defending them in that regard. All I will say is some smaller forces let their enmity towards the Met cloud their judgement occasionally. As for NI? There be dragons. And now JB is in charge, a man with no time for special branches, I'm sure everything will be just fine!
In fairness it wasn’t just the County Forces. As a former member of the SLT in a large South London Borough, having SO15 on the plot could be like being at the receiving end of a seagull attack - lots of shouting and flapping and end up covered in guano.
During the investigation into a major incident I was the ‘on-call’ and ‘told’ by a DC that 15 were going to visit a premises to get its CCTV. I had invested a lot of effort into building a relationship with this premises and knew this would not go down well. I asked to speak to the Inspector, and eventually spoke with him. I explained that whilst there were no ‘no-go’ zones on my borough so far as I was concerned, there would be backlash for me. If it was a necessary action then so be it, but I wanted reassurance that there actually was an upside to it that justified the pain. I explained that certainly if needed we’d assist or back them if it was required but the CCTV would show nothing because I had told the premises many times their system was old and they continually recorded over and over on the same tapes over two weeks. As the information 15 were looking for was months before, they were not going to find it. I wanted to be reassured that the inevitable fallout in my community relations was for a worthwhile cause and not just to ‘tick a box’. Luckily the DI I spoke to understood and put the action - a purely HOLMES generated thing by the way - on hold pending consideration by the grown-ups. I never heard another thing about it.
Later in the same investigation my troops went to do a S18 on my ground and found 15 already there doing a warrant. I brought this up on the conference call we were having thrice daily at the time. I explained as ex-SO12 I understood ‘need-to-know’. However, I sometimes needed to know too. I wasn’t asking for prior knowledge days or even hours in advance, but it was common sense for non-borough units to put on a CAD message to say they were going through a door at the time of doing it, if only so local units could go to their assistance if needed! Other borough reps chimed in that this was not a unique incident.
It made no difference at all.
We had borough liaison officers, ex-SB guys who I knew from the old days. I brought this up with them and it turned out they weren’t even being told these things! Whilst no apologist for SB in its old form, I genuinely believe they would have had more political ‘nouse’ than 15 ever demonstrated.
Fabulous piece Dom, which I’ve shared on X. All the best, Peter Bleksley
Cheers Peter