Met Police to send flying squad detectives to burglary hotspots

Scotland Yard is to send some of its best detectives from specialist teams like the flying squad to target burglary and theft hotspots.

The Metropolitan Police is to switch 70 detective sergeants from specialist operations into local borough teams across London to beef up their investigative capability.

It has asked for volunteers from the specialist squads of which there are more than a dozen including murder, rape, cyber crime and the flying squad famously portrayed by John Thaw and Dennis Waterman as Detective Inspector Jack Regan and Detective Sergeant George Carter.

It comes amid demands by ministers and police watchdogs for forces to boost their clear-up rates for burglary, car theft and shoplifting which have plummeted in the past decade.

HM police inspectorate has also criticised the Met’s lack of experienced officers in its local borough teams to oversee young detectives still learning how to investigate.

It is predicted that by next year, four in 10 officers nationally will have less than five years’ experience after the Government’s 20,000-strong officer uplift. In some London boroughs, it is claimed as many as 80 per cent of detectives are either direct entry recruits or have under two years’ experience.

‘Short-sighted’ move

There is also a national shortage of detectives, often attributed to the lack of extra overtime pay and anti-social hours, with one in seven posts vacant, according to police watchdogs. It means other forces face similar dilemmas.

The Met´s plans have been welcomed by the capital’s victims’ commissioner and policing experts but former detectives warned it was a “short-sighted” move that would weaken Scotland Yard’s capability to tackle organised crime with knock-on effects down the crime chain.

Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley is, however, determined to push through the changes which will be enforced if there are not enough volunteers.

A Met spokesman said: “We have asked all detective sergeants who have not worked within a borough for over three years to volunteer to move into local policing. If we cannot fill our circa 70 posts with volunteers, we will use a selection process to identify DS’s to move.

“We have a duty to make sure we have the right balance of skills and experience across our detective teams, to deliver a quality service for Londoners.

“HM Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMICFRS) has called out the need for increased supervision within our boroughs, and across the Met we have some amazing and skilled experienced detectives who will bring huge benefits to these teams.”

Only one in 30 domestic burglaries (3.3 per cent) resulted in a charge in London last year, half the rate compared with nearly a decade ago. It puts the Met in the bottom half of the league table of 43 police forces in England and Wales.

One former senior Met detective said: “These detective sergeants are hugely skilled in proactive policing techniques. They have spent thousands and thousands of pounds upskilling them to master surveillance, technical surveillance like cell site data analysis and tactics that you need in specialist posts.

“It is short-sighted to suddenly take away that knowledge, range of informants and that expertise and put it in boroughs dealing with burglars, car thieves and shoplifters. The only people who will benefit will be organised crime bosses.

“You cannot measure the success of tackling serious crime because most of it is not recorded crime. You may seize a ton of cocaine but it is one offence, one clear-up. But the impact of that going down to the lower levels is hundreds if not thousands of burglaries, thefts and shoplifting cases.”

Restoring public confidence

Rick Muir, director of the police foundation, said a review by Baroness Louise Casey had highlighted how the Met had in recent years prioritised specialist units over local policing with whom the public had most contact.

“Beefing up investigative capability in the boroughs seems sensible in that context. That may mean less capacity in specialist squads, but if your priority is restoring public confidence, then it is rational to focus resources on delivering a high quality local service to the public,” he said.

Claire Waxman, London’s victims’ commissioner, said victims of stalking and domestic abuse that she dealt with were sometimes left “confused, ill-informed and poorly protected” by “young and inexperienced” officers.

“We need more resources and specialism within the Basic Command Unit (BCU) front line teams to better protect victims, prevent them from withdrawing, and ensure early intervention with dangerous offenders who pose a serious risk to victims and the public,” she said.

Harvey Redgrave, former Number 10 policy adviser and chief executive of crime specialists Crest Advisory, said: “Local policing has been under-valued within London, often treated as the poor relation, relative to other more specialist areas of policing. This is a modest but welcome step that will begin the process of readdressing the balance.”

The Met said the changes would “maintain our operational resilience across both local policing and all other detective functions in the Met”.

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