HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) said in a statement: “We can confirm that we are now monitoring the Metropolitan Police Service through our Engage process, which provides additional scrutiny and support to help it make improvements.”
The Engage level of monitoring is used by HMICFRS when a force “is not succeeding in managing, mitigating or eradicating” a cause of concern.
It means the UK’s largest police force will be required to report to inspectors more regularly and could be asked to meet specific crime-fighting targets.
The Met could also receive support from the College of Policing, the National Police Chiefs Council or other external organisations.
Other forces that have been the subject of the inspectorate’s Engage process include Greater Manchester Police in 2020 and Cleveland Constabulary in 2019.
The family of Child Q, the teenager who was strip-searched in Hackney by Met Police officers while she was menstruating, have welcomed the decision taken by the inspectorate.
There are “substantial and persistent concerns” about the Metropolitan Police’s performance, a letter from a police watchdog reveals.
The letter, seen by the BBC, outlines various concerns, including about a “young” and “inexperienced” workforce. It also notes “a persistently large backlog” of online child abuse cases.
Inspector of Constabulary Matt Parr wrote to Acting Met Commissioner Sir Stephen House, saying there had been a drop in public confidence in the force that had accelerated in recent years due a series of high-profile scandals. He mentions the Charing Cross police station WhatsApp messages, the stop-and-search of British Olympic sprinter Bianca Williams and the strip-search of three children including Child Q. Mr Parr also spoke about the “seemingly incomprehensible failures to recognise and treat appropriately a series of suspicious deaths, in the Stephen Port case” as well as the murder and rape of Sarah Everard by serving Met officer Wayne Couzens.
Home Secretary Priti Patel said she backed the move taken by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary
The Met is now subject to an enhanced level of monitoring used by HMICFRS, known as Engage. It is deployed when a force “is not succeeding in managing, mitigating or eradicating” a cause of concern.
For a “flagship” police force, the Met has an appalling record …
A guy I knew in Hertford was over the moon when he got accepted into the Met. He lasted less than 3 years before he transferred out to the Hertfordshire Constabulary. That was 20 years ago.
This was totally wrong, I would have gone ape if it had been my daughter.
Fair enough, the teachers reported her, so there was a need to search.
The search however should have been with a responsible adult of the same sex.and been carried out in privacy by female officers.
She should have been marked at the highest possible grade after an event like this and all the school and police staff dismissed without compensation.
The forces are the Met, Greater Manchester, Cleveland, Gloucestershire, Staffordshire and Wiltshire.
Inspectors have raised “systemic concerns” about the Met, including its substandard response to emergency calls, “barely adequate” crime recording and a backlog of child abuse referrals.
A watchdog letter to the Met said failures have been exacerbated by the number of young and inexperienced recruits brought in as part of the national drive to replace thousands of officers cut during austerity measures.
Matt Parr, from HMICFRS, wrote to acting Met Commissioner Sir Stephen House, saying the organisation has had “substantial and persistent concerns” about the force “for a considerable time”.
These included the findings of a damning report in March which said the force’s approach to tackling corruption was “fundamentally flawed” and “not fit for purpose”.
Wiltshire Police was the latest to confirm it will move into special measures.
I think the government need to be held to account, its all do to funding imo, the population is on the increase, crime by that very nature will increase, what do the government do, cut staff numbers .
Yes. That, of course, is down to Treason May who still manages to hold her head up high and take all the payments and other privileges she can get from being a so-called representative of the people.
