Recruitment and Retention.
Chris HobbsThe London Assembly Police and Crime Committee have requested submissions in respect of issues surrounding the recruitment and retention of Metropolitan Police Officers.
This is a response which almost certainly isn't that which they are looking for but does focus on factors which will impact upon both recruitment and retention: These include the current unrest clearly prevalent in many parts of the country which could result in an unprecedented level of communal disorder.
Officer frustration in responding to the public. How it was.
As I’ve previously stated, I began my police career at Southall which is located in the London Borough of Ealing. In those days Ealing was divided into two divisions namely Ealing and Southall. Each had its own Chief Superintendent and were largely autonomous, with separate radio channels. Overseeing both divisions was a Commander.
However, regardless of structure, the key issue for the public, then as now, was the response that would be given to calls requiring assistance. Back in those days responding to those calls twenty-four hours a day was a minimum of 21 police vehicles across the London Borough of Ealing. This included five police vans and three police ‘area’ cars behind the wheel of which were highly trained ‘Class1 or Class 2’ drivers. Often the number of vehicles would exceed 21 with a ‘Q’ car; an unmarked vehicle crewed by experienced plain clothes officers plus several CID cars which would be used primarily for crime investigations but would also respond to assist their uniform colleagues.
This meant that at the end of each and every shift there were few if any outstanding calls to hand over to the next shift.
In those days, Southall and Ealing police stations each had a ‘reserve room’ where officers would staff a switchboard and deal with members of the public over the phone and at the front counter. It was possible for the public to call a central non-emergency number with that call being put through to the reserve room or other department within the station. The public could also dial the ‘reserve room’ directly.
This was the route favoured by pubs, clubs, local shops and businesses together with those ‘in the know’ rather than the more cumbersome 999 system where calls were often queued, Thus, if the public dialled Southall Reserve directly they would probably be answered with little delay and units deployed within seconds if the call was urgent. This meant that a staff member at Jingles nightclub could dial Southall directly, state simply, ‘we have a fight at Jingles’ and be assured that within seconds that call would be relayed to units who would respond.
In time the reserve room would be replaced with a modern ‘starship enterprise’ CAD room with a sergeant supervising. Calls for police be they made directly to the station or via the 999 system, would again be quickly dealt with.
Whilst the system was not 100% perfect, it was effective, however critics would say it wasn’t efficient as officers would be deployed inside a building as opposed to being out on the street.
Now control rooms are centralised; perhaps a better use of resources but as effective as the old ‘steam driven’ systems described above? Probably not.
Frustration at inadequate resources.
So, over the years have matters changed for the better? Several months ago, an individual walked into my Ealing local pub clearly ‘high’ on a substance, probably Khat. He was restrained by customers and I dialled 999. As on previous occasions when I’ve dialled 999, it was clear that the operator was reluctant to deploy a unit. The fact that I identified myself as a retired police officer probably tipped the balance. Three units materialised on the hurry up and the errant individual removed. The officers explained that they only had four vehicles covering the borough that night. As stated above, that is 17 vehicles less than in my day.
On another occasion whilst crossing Vauxhall Bridge on a Saturday lunch-time, I saw a male shouting at passing joggers; I watched as shouting became physically attacking. I dialled 999 and although I was at least 50 meters away he spotted me and guessed what I was doing. He ran up to me and began shouting and making threats. I continued to walk across the bridge whilst being abused by the individual whose foul- mouthed tirade could be heard by the police call handler. As we reached the other side of the bridge, the male became more aggressive, threatening to kill me and grabbing my clothes. I was pushing him away, resisting the temptation to physically respond but wary in case he produced a knife. It was then the apologetic call handler stated; ‘I’m really sorry, I’ve no unit to send you.’
Suddenly the male lost interest, walked away and boarded a bus. The call-handler explained that he’d managed to find a unit that was fifteen minutes away. The ‘threats to kill’ was duly recorded and reported by sympathetic, apologetic officers.
Falling through the cracks.
Much which should be done in terms of serving the public, isn’t.
Calls these days are graded by the call handler with ‘I’ immediate or urgent calls requiring a prompt response. ‘S’ calls are the next grade and require a response within the hour. Other calls such as a burglary where the suspect is gone, will merit a non-urgent response however such calls often ‘fall off’ the system.
Around three years ago, six shops in my area were burgled by means of the thieves forcing shutters open. The miscreants were looking for cash left on the premises. All shop owners dialled 999 on discovering the break-in. All expected a visit from police but only one of the six actually saw an officer
My local newsagents have frequently been subjected to thieves who simply walk in and help themselves. The shop has excellent state of the art CCTV. Recently, masked youths entered the shop and duly began ‘helping themselves;’ the wife of the owner tried to stop them but a masked youth grabbed her arm, swung her round and she went crashing into a counter injuring her back; thus, a simple shoplifting had become a robbery.
The young student who works in the shop, dialled 999 but there was no response presumably because the thieves had left. There was no follow-up visit despite a text message giving a CAD reference and a promise that police would attend albeit perhaps not on that day. The student then produced his mobile phone and scrolled down showing me other CAD references to offences committed in the shop together with an assurance that there would be a follow-up investigatory visit. The message did also state that a precise date and time couldn’t be given. In fact, there has been no follow up visit to any of the above offences.
Sadly, due to the huge demands placed on police and the lack of resources, calls that merit a response simply fall through the cracks. The Met have attempted to remedy this, albeit via an officer or staff member on the other end of a phone, hence the departure of the female officer referred to below.
Post-arrest bureaucracy.
'Officers will sometimes hesitate in making arrests for less serious offences in the knowledge that this will result in them being ‘off the road’ for hours.'
The other related issue to police response concerns the bureaucracy that follows each arrest. These days a simple shoplifting arrest shortly after the beginning of a shift is likely to ensure that that crew remains ‘off the road’ for remainder of that shift dealing with the prisoner welfare and the above-mentioned bureaucracy.
In my day as a young PC, we’d be in and back out on patrol within two hours of arresting a shoplifter. If the arrest was for a public order offence of say drunk and disorderly or threatening behaviour, we’d be in and out within an hour.
As theft from stores has increased so have concerns that police don’t respond. At my local Sainsbury’s convenience store, a security officer is only employed in the afternoon thus the store is plagued by thieves during the morning. In West Ealing, a Tesco’s convenience store has similar problems. Staff say that only occasionally do police attend. A trader at a precinct in which a major Sainsbury’s store is located, described a situation that has become untenable in terms of theft, drug abuse and anti-social behaviour. Recently a male approached two females on separate occasions and stated that he would like to rape them. Two separate 999 calls were made by two callers. Police failed to respond although one caller/victim was told that police would ‘be with her’ after 20 minutes and she should wait. She did not as she simply didn’t feel safe.
Overburdened response officers.
A post stabbing crime scene which will be an all too familiar occurrence for ‘Response.’
Most of these theft offences will not be recorded as crimes and none of this should be interpreted as criticism of front-line officers. A ludicrous decision that hard pressed Response officers should also ‘carry’ crime investigations as part of their duties was greeted with disbelief. These officers work ‘earlies, lates and nights or are in central London on aid duties; hardly ideal for keeping in touch with their allocated victims.
They will also frequently be ‘first on the scene’ of stabbings and shootings (crime scene illustrated above courtesy Crime Scene Images) and will render crucial first aid which will not infrequently save lives. This total failure of the ‘carrying crimes’ policy was ameliorated by the establishment of units which would deal with such investigations and members of the public who are dissatisfied. Nevertheless, Response officers are still ‘carrying’ some crimes, just not as many.
On the plus side the Met are utilising new technologies linked to CCTV which have resulted in additional arrests being made of those who habitually steal from shops and stores. The downside is the near collapse of the justice system namely the lack of capacity in the UK’s neglected prison service plus the debilitating bureaucracy that takes officers ‘off the streets’ for hours after they have made an arrest.
I referred to crime investigations above; it’s also worth pointing out that officers in ‘safeguarding units’ (sexual offences, domestic violence, child protection etc) are also carrying ridiculous and in many cases, emotionally draining case-loads. It will be interesting to see whether this was a factor in the current Simon Levy scandal.
The steady decline, but not demise, of cohesive team spirit.
At the heart of each police division was a canteen where officers could relax, ask advice, vent their frustrations and, as stated above, deal with their trauma with the help of colleagues. A crucial part of the fabric of the team were the canteen staff who, across the Met, were largely drawn from the local community and were hugely appreciated, even revered by officers with whom they were on first name terms. Canteens have now largely gone apart from those in Met police ‘HQ’s, notably New Scotland Yard and Lambeth.
Recently I was chatting to a local Response officer and mentioned the name of one of our excellent neighbourhood PC’s. The Response officer had never heard of him and explained that although they covered the same borough, they had little contact other than if they happened to attend the same call. Later I spoke to one of our neighbourhood PC’s and the response was exactly the same.
The move to borough policing some 26 years ago was generally regarded as a positive move by most on the front line even though that ‘cohesive team spirit’ was slightly diluted as borough units were spread between more than one police station. The creation of BIU’s (Borough Intelligence Units) was regarded as positive step forward which coincided with improved IT. Those who worked within BIU’s unquestionably had their ‘fingers on the pulse’ of their borough and here we have two key words; ‘their borough.’ BIU’s no longer exist.
The loathed BCU’s; Basic Command Units.
Cutbacks forced the establishment of BCU’s; loathed unwieldy Basic Command Units which consisted of three boroughs amalgamated under one Chief Superintendent. There remains an element of borough policing in that Response teams will have responsibility to their borough; however, the notion that if one borough within a BCU is short of Response officers, they can ‘borrow’ officers from another borough within the BCU. In practice that simply doesn’t work. Another issue which may seem trivial concerns ‘Aid’ duties where police public order events including protests and football matches.
Aid officers are normally drawn from a BCU which means the unfortunate carrier driver can spend inordinate periods of time ‘picking up’ and ‘dropping off’ officers at their respective police stations across three boroughs. Perhaps more crucially is the fact that these public order serials may well contain officers drawn from three boroughs who will be effectively strangers to each other; hardly an ideal situation when much time is spent in a carrier or when confronting a volatile crowd.
There can be few, whatever their political persuasion, who can disagree that police station closures have had a detrimental effect across London in terms of enabling the public to feel secure. Even where police stations remained open, the closure of front counters increased the feeling of separation between police and public.
Where I live in London, there was a visible police station built in 1838, that hadn’t been open to the public for decades. It was however, used by a variety of units which meant that the surrounding populace knew that officers would come and go from the building and use local shops, cafés and pubs. Just this presence alone heightened the feeling of security. The building was sold by the Met in 2013 and has become apartments, many of which have still to be let.
The demoralising effect of cuts and tenure.
Last year at the Notting Hill Carnival, I was chatting to a female mounted officer. She was telling me that her ambition from childhood was to join the police and progress to Mounted Branch. She had worked hard through training and as a response officer. Alas, with the onset of cutbacks, the horse she was riding had already been sold to the West Midlands force who were creating their own mounted branch from scratch. This was dependent on the horse completing its training. The officer said her fate was uncertain and that she would learn whether she would be retained or be returned to response or neighbourhood policing in October.
More recently, at a protest, I was approached by a young female officer who had been in the Met for nine years. Despite the rigors and perils of response duties, she said that she enjoyed her role and being with her team. She had been told, however, that she was being moved to a role which was office based and would involve dealing, over the phone, with members of the public who were disgruntled with police handling of their reported crime.
As a result of this enforced move, the officer applied for a job with British Airways ‘long haul’ cabin crew and they had ‘snapped her arm off’ as you would expect when gaining a fully trained police officer. British Airways gain is unquestionably the Met Police’s loss.
It seems that each and every front-line Met officer, if they are not thinking of leaving themselves, knows someone who is. There is massive lack of perceived support from senior officers and throwing in the occasional line that states that ‘the majority of officers do a magnificent job’ or words to that effect, does little to soften the innumerable blows that land upon the heads of officers.
The term, throwing officers under the bus, is one that is frequently heard although there is an acknowledgement that poor recruitment, vetting and training due to previous cutbacks have allowed unsuitable individuals to join the Met. There would be few who would disagree that selling off of much of the world- renowned Met police training school at Hendon and the end of residential training where recruits could be closely monitored, was an act of folly driven by cutbacks imposed by the Conservative government of the day.
Disruption is currently being caused by cutbacks which have resulted in officers being forcibly moved from units where they were settled and found job satisfaction as illustrated above. Examples of this include CID officers in highly specialist roles being returned to borough policing; the closure of Parks policing units which included officers based on Primrose Hill; this area of natural beauty has since seen problems involving gatherings of large groups of youths.
The removal of school’s officers was also controversial and, in many ways, sad. The creation of the school’s officer role had not been welcomed by many teachers within those educational establishments yet the police stationed in those schools won over those teachers to the extent that their removal was greeted with dismay.
The Commissioner also wishes to rid the force of those who are on adjusted duties also known as restricted duties or recuperative duties. These officers are considered to be medically unfit to the extent that they are unable to undertake full duties. This could be due to injuries sustained when on or off duty; it could also be due to illness or mental health issues. Financial packages have been announced but the decision has attracted criticism.
Lives will be lost.
Another section of the Met that has suffered cutbacks is the Roads and Transport Policing Command also known as the Roads Policing Unit. Various sections have been disbanded with officers being ‘returned to borough.’ Officers are also being tenured and it would appear that the entire command is likely to be scrapped. As frequently occurs with police cuts there are glib reassurances that little will change in the resultant reorganisation. In this case it is claimed that other units will absorb roads policing functions. Critics, including officers, point out that lives will be lost as the focus on road safety inevitably declines. In addition, serious road traffic accidents require specialist investigations and investigators. Traffic Units have traditionally been referred to by their colleagues as ‘black rats’ but their efforts have always been appreciated and their apparent forthcoming loss is being greeted with dismay.
Amidst this turmoil Commissioner has also introduced ‘tenure.’ Tenure was previously introduced into the Met by Commissioner Sir Paul Condon, whereby CID and other specialist officers were forced back into uniform after a period of time. This was generally recognised as a failed, unpopular policy that impacted of the forces effectiveness and was rapidly ended when Sir John Stevens became Met Commissioner in 1999.
Thus, officers who have climbed the ladder of achievement and ended up in specialist units which have matched their ambitions and interests have and will be ‘sliding down the snake’ back from whence they came.
The precise arguments for tenure have not been publicly articulated but these could include the freeing up of specialist posts so that other officers on the front line would also have opportunities to specialise. Yet there has always been movement and indeed there seems little enthusiasm from front line officers for tenure. Indeed, they point to officers who have joined them from specialist units having to be retrained in many aspects of front-line policing, especially Response, which requires specialist skills in its own right.
News that 45 Territorial Support Officers (TSG) are being returned to borough has been greeted with dismay by their front-line colleagues. The TSG has always been regarded as bulwark of the Met’s public order policing; they are the cavalry that comes riding to the rescue when the going gets tough and, given the current national tensions, the going could get very tough indeed in terms of life-threatening rioting.
The decision to remove custody sergeants and move them to other duties, may be a direct or indirect result of the Charing Cross police station debacle but the role of the custody sergeant is a complex and specialist one. Many of those coming into custody have mental health or substance abuse issues. Crucial decisions have to be made and errors can lead to death. I hope that rumours suggesting that the post of custody officers across the Met will be filled by newly promoted sergeants is simply mischievous.
Not a good look. The Met’s staff survey.
The last Met police staff survey took place in 2024 and makes dismal reading for senior officers. Worryingly, there can be no doubt whatsoever that situation has deteriorated dramatically since that survey.
The response to staff surveys is limited due to the fact that officers and police staff believe that they achieve nothing and there are concerns as to the promised anonymity.
Nevertheless, 51% of those who responded stated that they were likely or very likely to leave the Met within the next five years.
In addition, 58% of those surveyed were very unlikely or unlikely to recommend that the Met is a good place to work to friends and family.
On the plus side there are positive results in terms of immediate supervisors.
Met Comms (Communication with the public).
There is, amongst rank-and-file officers, not just in the Met but across the country, both frustration and anger that police critics are enjoying a proverbial field day as far as both mainstream and social media are concerned. Whereas the majority of that criticism used to come from the left, it is now the far-right who are very much in the ascendancy in the police propaganda wars.
Some of this criticism originates from the USA while there is also concern that Russian bots are heavily involved. The term ‘two-tier policing can frequently be heard and seen on ‘X’ with those on the right claiming that police favour minority groups notably Muslims while those on the left retain the view that police are racist, homophobic and Islamophobic and will point to the disproportionate numbers of black and Muslim males who are in UK prisons.
This strident criticism has evolved from simple critical posts to the use of historic video footage which is claimed to be current or very recent when it is, in fact, several years old. The frustration of officers towards their own organisations tends to be focussed on the lack of ‘pushback’ to unfair criticism or factually incorrect ‘reporting’ of incidents. Of course, those who have any knowledge at all in relation to policing will understand that ongoing investigations or legal proceedings can impact on statements issued by forces. However, this is not always the case and forces need to be far more agile in dealing with ‘fake’ news and propaganda.
A case in point is a recent post that purports to show hundreds of praying Muslims outside Parliament separated from ‘patriots’ by police officers in full ‘riot gear’ some with long shields. This video is accompanied by critical comment and, at the time of writing, had achieved more than 200,000 views. The footage shown was obviously AI; it was also derogatory towards police and Muslims. I sent the post to the Met. Here was an opportunity for pushback that could highlight the fake and distorted news that abounds on ‘X’ and elsewhere; I didn’t receive a reply.
In fairness, however, as far as the Met is concerned, there have been recent examples of ‘pushback’ from Met Comms which has been welcomed by its officers and supporters. The Met were pilloried by all sections of the media over the recent case of murderer and rapist Simon Levy, yet all was not as reported and the Commissioner commendably ‘pushed back’ on the more inaccurately described aspects of the case whilst acknowledging errors had been made.
However, journalists who are supportive of the Met are often frustrated when they attempt to obtain details of an incident, known as ‘lines’ but have to provide precise details of the location of that incident and an indication of what has occurred. This is patently ludicrous. If there was a stabbing in Ealing, then that incident should be relatively easy to find on the CAD system. Having said that, it is of course important that only accurate information is placed in the public domain but that should be done as quickly as possible and, as stated elsewhere, not impede the investigation.
Those on the far-right are also using ‘X’ and AI to portray unflattering caricatures of Muslim men and police officers with the former controlling the latter.
These go alongside threats towards police which strongly hint at a day of reckoning when patriots will ‘rise up.’ These threats are articulated by an actor who used to play a police officer in a television series and are chilling: He posted the following;
Similar sentiments are frequently expressed elsewhere and are given credence by the attempts of those of the far right to identify the officers involved in the Henry Nowak tragedy. The officers who were identified were the wrong officers but had, reportedly, to be placed in safe houses. The post below articulates a general threat to all officers:
The following was recently posted by a well-known far-right activist
It would be possible to assume that this is just an isolated ramble of a wishful thinker, but there are numerous posts that point to support for large scale disorder with the ‘targets’ being the police together with Muslims/’invaders’/’migrants’ etc. It is to be hoped that cutbacks have not adversely affected the intelligence resources of the Met and other forces whose tasks will hopefully include closely monitoring social media.
Collective smearing.
It has become increasingly obvious over recent years that when something goes wrong in policing involving one or a small number of officers, all officers are ‘collectively smeared’ as a result. The Henry Nowak tragedy is a recent example and was displayed on far-right social media as anti-white bias/racism that is prevalent throughout policing. Grooming gangs is another stick with which police are frequently beaten even though revelations into what was unquestionably a scandal, were in the public domain back in 2014 and since then hundreds of grooming gang ‘members’ who thought they had evaded detection, have been arrested.
Most officers currently serving on the front line would have be no-where near the scandal yet all are blamed.
Similarly, the death of Chris Kaba was portrayed by anti-racist groups and many on the hard left as an example of endemic police racism. Hostility towards the police together with 'collective smearing, is also prevalent on the hard left of the political spectrum. This includes many who support the Palestinian cause where hundreds have been arrested for offences which include seriously injuring a police officer, extensive criminal damage and for supporting a proscribed terror group.
Contrast this collective smearing of police with NHS scandals, even leaving aside Harold Shipman and Beverly Allitt, which have involved several hospital maternity units where reportedly, more than 400 babies died as a result of substandard care together with around 18 mothers. Various inquires have suggested that the numbers could be far higher. Yet NHS workers across the country are, quite rightly, not ‘collectively smeared’ and abused for these failings.
Positive Comms
Whilst there is much work to be done in respect of police ‘comms’ within the Met and elsewhere, there is also that which is positive. Unbeknown to me until several hours ago is the fact that the Met have their own You Tube channel. That I’ve only just discovered this asks questions in itself but the channel can be found by searching on @Metpolice_UK. This channel has more than 100,000 subscribers. The Met also places on You Tube, short videos that include tours of duty with Response crews.
One ten-minute video, which shows examples of Met officers using ‘tactical contact’ to stop vehicles, attracted three quarters of a million views.
There is surely great potential here to inform the wider public of the good works carried out by officers in the Met and elsewhere on a 24- hour basis. This would be in addition to posting body-worn camera footage of good arrests which is becoming a welcome more frequent occurrence. One possibility is establishing positive contacts within the bona-fide news organisations such as the national and local news channels and inviting them to ‘dip in’ to any footage placed in the public domain via You Tube.
Divisive propaganda, assaults on officers and police trauma.
Credit and thanks to Peter Lewis
At present however, the Met, as the UK’s largest and most influential police force need to take the lead in countering the divisive propaganda clearly designed to provoke and encourage an unprecedented level of disorder which could border on insurrection. Assaults on police are increasing at an alarming rate with many of those responsible doubtless encouraged by that which can be found across social media, notably ‘X’, on a daily basis. This goes even above and beyond that which was voiced earlier by the actor in that officers and their families are curretly being threatened in their own homes. To add to the number of increasing assaults on police, there is also the statistic that individual UK police officers will encounter between 400 and 600 traumatic incidents during the course of a policing career. The average person deals with five or six.
If mass disorder, on such a level which exceeds that of 2011, occurs and if it involves racial conflict, then a highly motivated police service will be needed to ‘hold the line’ and protect communities. Those officers will also need to be confident that they will be supported in the event of them having to use force. There is currently little confidence that that support will be forthcoming which is yet another issue. Even if officers are ultimately exonerated as was PC NX121, that will be of little consolation after years of morale sapping anxiety.
In certain parts of the country anti-migrant protests are now resulting in all persons of colour in that area, at risk of being labelled and abused as ‘migrants’ or ‘invaders.’ At this time of unprecedented tension, we have the Met in a state of turmoil with the Commissioner moving deckchairs around on the Titanic due to cutbacks and a resurrection of a previously failed tenure policy. Losing police dogs and horses in the current climate is regarded by those with an in-depth knowledge of public order as an act of folly. He is also losing experienced capable officers and indeed I heard of one today, a truly exceptional police constable, who appears to on the brink of leaving.
Whilst the Commissioner has made it clear that the cutbacks imposed on his force will adversely impact upon operations, as with the cutbacks imposed by Cameron and May, there has been no vigorous campaign by the Commissioner, the Mayor, London’s MP’s or indeed the London Assembly Police and Crime Committee, against these cuts. This lack of concern runs in tandem with a disgruntled workforce that feels unsupported and unappreciated.
As stated above, however poor the 2024 staff survey was, the next could be even worse due to the double-edged sword of cutbacks and tenure.
To finish on a positive but sad note; as alluded to above, policing and its officers including those from the Met, have been vilified across mainstream and social media in recent times. The extent of this vilification and the lack of pushback have adversely affected morale and retention; however, the million strong response to the petition in respect of the early release of those responsible for the tragic death of PC Harper, can only be a boost for front line officers: It shows that the majority of the UK public, despite well publicised failings both real and invented, do care about their police.
Below a link to the 2024 Met police staff survey. You may need to cut and paste.