Tag Archives: mpa

Police performance stats

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Performance Committee of the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) where for the last few years I have slogged over the multitude of statistics that pour forth from the Metropolitan Police service as we hold them to account. Of course, the trick here is that the goalposts are always moving (the Met and the Government are always moving them to be more accurate) so we rarely find ourselves comparing like with like.

I have a long wrangle with a Met officer about violent crime. Violent crime stats are up. But the police say that they are recording them better so more are recorded – and the other defence is that the rise is the result of increased police activity.

It is clear – that nothing is clear. Why do I always get the feeling that performance stats are about protecting the Met and not about trying to deal with the real state of affairs – at least not publicly? Later in an informal session about how we can resolve these difficulties, there is an admission on the part of the Met that they cannot bear it when the media get hold of a poor performance stat and make mincemeat of them in say, the Evening Standard.

We (the committee members) basically feel that you have to get real. Continual defensiveness, spin and dumbing down leads to even worse situations where we (the public) lose trust in the police. And we need to trust our police. It’s not unlike Blair over Iraq – you start to doubt everything about the Blair government because you know they spin to avoid consequence and criticism. I think it better to hang out dirty washing. Show how complex policing is and how difficult. Have the debate, take the criticism and move on. Eventually the press will have to cover issues from a different perspective.

Stop and search

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I had a meeting with David Warwick (Chief Executive, Haringey Council) about White Hart Lane Recreation Ground. Raised my concerns. He agreed to get the head of planning to follow up with further details about the case.

Later, I had the first meeting of a new sub-committee that I am chairing at the London Assembly. It is to monitor the implementation of the recommendations from the investigation into the police’s use of stop and search Scrutiny which the MPA (including myself) carried out earlier this year.

Citizenship ceremony

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Bump into my sister and brother-in-law at Haringey Civic Centre where he has come to take British Citizenship. Dan is American and has been here for decades and finally decided to do this. Very significant day.

I am there to meet a member of the Bangladeshi community who wanted to talk to me about a range of issues. Very interesting meeting followed by meeting with a young guy who wants to set up a Welfare to Work program in Tottenham for unemployed, young ethnic minority residents. I wish him well and support the idea. Finding funding will be the issue.

Then off to the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) for a meeting of the EODB (Equal Opportunities and Diversity Board). We discuss informally the work program for the next few years. Loads of good ideas around for investigation and keeping the Met to account ranging from policing terrorism to forced marriages.

At end of meeting get to gossip with the members about who will be the next Commissioner. The members who are on the interview panels will not divulge anything to us who weren’t. So we adjourn to the pub – where still not a word passes their lips!

Memorial service for firefighters

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Memorial Service at Westminster Cathedral for the two firefighters who died saving lives in a house fire earlier this year. Sitting in the Cathedral and listening to the family readings and memories was heartbreaking. Looking around at the hundreds of firefighters there to pay their respects to their colleagues and brothers who died really brought home, not just the sense of family loss and tragedy, but the true bravery and the reality of that loss.

I know, as we all know, that this is a risk of the job – but with 10 years without loss and with all of the safety measures the modern fire service now employ – we have forgotten the harsh reality and the dangers that still exist when brave firefighters put saving our lives before theirs.

It was a very beautiful, very sad and moving service.

Later in the afternoon, I had a briefing by senior Met officers on C3i. This is the new call system which will begin its proper roll-out in the Met in November. It’s been worked on for years and cost a fortune – but – if it delivers what it is meant to deliver – it should all have been worth it.

The new system will integrate the thirty-two borough police control rooms into one system, along with other services such as the police’s incident support centres. There are lots of other changes involved too – including an interpretation service for people making 999 calls who have poor English.

The integration should make deploying police resources easier and more effective. There is a bit of concern from borough commanders about their staff being deployed in other boroughs as the system uses the nearest cars to attend. I am sure that will be worked out.

On a personal level, as lead member for response in the MPA – and having been banging on about the Met’s failure to answer local, non-urgent calls – I was particularly glad to see that lots of this ‘customer service’ aspect appears to have been taken on board.

There will be a pathway for local calls to end up with local police – and if there is no answer, that call will go back to the operator until an answer is found for the caller. It’s not what I would call a Rolls Royce customer service – but at least it is in there. So phoning those 132 police stations across London and plonking the results showing that around 40% never answered the phone does seem to have a possibly positive outcome. Hurrah!

Murders in Highgate

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Briefing by a senior Met officer on the double murder in Highgate and the other murders committed in London allegedly by the same person. Shocking events.

Holly Lodge estate – where the double murder of an middle-aged couple took place – is the ‘nicest’ type of street you can imagine. Impossible for neighbours and local residents to conceive of this tragedy.

Without going into details, it looks as if it all raises a whole raft of issues about mental health care. The Metropolitan Policy Authority (MPA) is to conduct a study in this area this year – not a moment too soon.

Policing in London

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Today was the Met Police Commissioner’s conference where senior bods in the Met (and the Metropolitan Police Authority) gathered to ‘build on our success’ – i.e. plot and plan the way forward.

Sir John Stevens gave his usual stirring story for boys (and girls) speech. He is an absolute master of rallying his troops and motivating them. He’s really more of a politician than most the politicians I know – and better at it.

Myself and local Haringey Commander, Stephen Bloomfield, got an honorary named mention for Muswell Hill police station (see my blog entry for 27 September).

There was much success for him. This included the new “Safer Neighbourhoods” program. Currently it applies in three wards in each London borough, putting six police personnel on our streets, ring-fenced from removal for any other policing purpose.

However, the roll-out of the program faces funding problems. And without a pan-London roll out, there’s a risk that crime is displaced to areas outside the scheme.

Next was a speech from the Chair of the MPA, Len Duval. I have a lot of time for Len – voted for him to be Chair in fact – and time is what you needed today. Len had been given a slot of 15 minutes. Now what you have to understand about the Met is it runs like clockwork to time (if only our rail system did the same). Len made good points – and then remade them – and then veered off at tangents – and then made them again. The upshot being that he overran his slot by about 25 minutes – thus throwing the whole schedule into disarray and losing his audience entirely. Hope someone close to him whispers in his ear for next time.

MPA

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Last meeting before the summer break of the Metropolitan Police Authority. Deputy Commissioner Blair comes up for a chat with me beforehand to thank me for understanding the ‘agonising’ decisions the police have to make to catch a rapist in South London by making black men between 25 and 40 ‘voluntarily’ give a DNA sample. That will go on as an issue way beyond Operation Minstead – the issues around DNA databases and discrimination are going to get more frequent and more difficult in my view. How much information should the government or its agencies be able to force people to hand over, and what should be permissible to do with that information and by who?

There is a long debate at the meeting about the use of police cells to hold illegal immigrants. This causes huge problems as there are too few cells and if they are full of immigrants rather than criminals – there is nowhere for criminals to go.

The MPA (or rather Labour) have avoided coming to a decision so far on who should be their “link member” for Haringey. To recap – for the first four years, I had been exiled from Haringey because Labour (who chair the MPA) wanted to keep me out of Haringey in case it was to their political disadvantage for me to be on my home patch. All the other members are enabled to link with their home patch – partly for their convenience but also because of local knowledge. For the first term of office there was a valid reason why Nicky Gavron (who was the Enfield Haringey London Assembly member and lives in Haringey herself) had as good a claim to Haringey as I. But she’s no longer the Enfield Haringey member, and her replacement doesn’t live in Haringey.

But of course just because Labour insists on its own members having their own local patch, doesn’t mean they won’t try to impose different standards on other people! It’s just this sort of silly pettiness that turns people off politics.

MPA Awayday

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It is the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) awayday – all day at some anonymous hotel in London.

For the first four years, I had been exiled from Haringey to Islington as their MPA link member  because Labour (who chair the MPA) wanted to keep me out of Haringey in case it was to my political advantage to be on my home patch.  All the other members are enabled to link with their home patch – partly for their convenience but also because of local knowledge.  However, I had been kept out. For the first term of office there was a valid reason why Nicky Gavron (who was the Enfield Haringey London Assembly member and lives in Haringey herself) had as good a claim to Haringey as I.

However, after this June’s elections, the Enfield Haringey member is now someone who lives in Enfield – so there’s no decent reason (other than politics!) why I shouldn’t be the Haringey link member. Politics like this are not acceptable on a police authority in my view – we will see what happens next week – when the decision is taken.

More Stop and Search

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Straight into long TV interview with a digital TV station for black and ethnic issues. They are interviewing me as Vice-Chair of the Stop and Search Scrutiny.

It is quite funny in that they are obviously operating on a shoestring and the camera man has to hold a hand-written intro next to the camera for the presenter to read – no money for autocue.

That doesn’t take away from the content. I thought it was fantastic to have a forty minute session with questions and answers that allowed some depth on the issue. It drives me potty to have to speak in continual soundbites for some news programs. This was a real opportunity to present the whole gamut and complex nature of Stop and Search and the issues the Met and the Communities face in its usage. I’ve described the scrutiny itself before in my blog – so won’t repeat it here – you can get it on the MPA website if you are interested.

Police Authority

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Annual General Meeting of the new term of the Metropolitan Police Authority at which we (the members) vote for the Chair, Deputies and Chairs of committees etc.

Since the previous Chair, Labour Assembly Member Toby Harris, failed to get re-elected, Labour have been running around trying to ensure a Labour succession to the chairmanship. As at least half the so called ‘independents’ on the MPA are Labour hacks of one sort or another – Len Duvall is duly enthroned. For what it is worth, he has my support anyway. I think he’s probably the only Labour member who could do the job – and none of the other contenders could have garnered enough support.

Of course, the other member of note, was the new Home Secretary’s Independent appointment to the MPA – none other than – yes you have guessed it – that well-known, independent Toby Harris! So independent of political affiliation – not!

Anyway – rather than bore you with the rest of the nominations and positions etc, I’ll move onto the Commissioner getting a bit rattled by the discussion on Stop and Search. Having just had the explosion in the media over the rise of stops on the Asian Community under Section 44 of the Terrorism Act – he was keen to put into the arena completely different statistics.

I make my comments – and I guess we left it that we agree to disagree. I still don’t think the Met fully realise or acknowledge the extent of racial bias we found in the Stop and Search scrutiny – and I think it must be because it is subliminal – almost unintentional.

Deputy Commissioner Blair came over for a chat and to ask if I had received his letter to me in reply to my letter over the DNA testing of black men in South London to find a serial rapist who has for many years committed these crimes against elderly ladies. It is an horrific crime and the police are desperate to get their man.

However, I am of the view that this ‘voluntary’ process inviting the 1000 or so members of the community who fit the racial DNA picture to come give their DNA has some real issues around intimidation. Sir Ian Blair argues in his letter that basically the end justifies the means – and even I can see how hard it must be to know you can get him – and then not be able to do the tests. In his letter, Sir Ian says that out of ‘125 initial refusals, only need to use powers of arrest in five cases’.

I have written back to ask whether they were arrested because they refused to give DNA samples or arrested on another charge and whilst under arrest DNA was then taken. There are some very difficult issues around this taking of DNA from anyone brought to a police station whether charged or not – a result of recent changes to legislation which I believe will discriminate against ethnic communities and also begin a slippery slide to loss of civil liberties.

It is easy, when a crime is this horrific, to say it is so important that just this time we will employ effectively mandatory testing. But once protections of our rights are gone for one reason – it is so easy for them to be eroded.

I feel that the police are cross with me for pursuing this and I have had one email from an old lady in South London cross with me for questionning these tactics. But I do feel the need to follow this through.

And if it is mandatory testing – then let us have the cajones to state it outright, change legislation – but let us not have the hypocrisy of pretending there is anything voluntary about this process. And if the Government really wants a DNA database of the whole country – then let them stand on that platform and propose it publicly and have the battle. The legislation they have passed simply lets it in through the back door – and is the sort of legislation that in practice I believe will lead to the communities suffering further bias.