Recommendation - Metropolitan Police, June 2021

Metropolitan Police Service · Ref: 2020/140352

Recommendation date: 3 June 2021

Response due: 29 July 2021

Published: 7 February 2022

Use of force and armed policing

A man was stopped and searched by Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) officers in London. During the search, one of the officers used force comprised of kneeling on his neck for around four minutes.

View on IOPC website

Recommendations (1)

Recommendation 1 Accepted

Recommendation

The IOPC recommends that the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) takes immediate steps to ensure that Borough Commanders ensure their Professional Standards Units (PSUs) are adhering to their legal duty under Schedule 3, Part 1 of the Police Reform Act (PRA) … Read moreThe IOPC recommends that the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) takes immediate steps to ensure that Borough Commanders ensure their Professional Standards Units (PSUs) are adhering to their legal duty under Schedule 3, Part 1 of the Police Reform Act (PRA) 2002 to preserve evidence relating to complaints. This follows an IOPC investigation in which a complaint made by a member of the public was allocated to an officer within the local PSU, before being referred to the IOPC months later. The PSU officer took no investigative steps, such as reviewing the existing material, securing local council CCTV or contacting potential witnesses, as they said they were waiting on the complainant to confirm the heads of their complaint. They also said that, as the matter had initially been assessed as misconduct only, it was not proportionate to conduct fast time actions such as securing CCTV. When the officer did review the existing material for the complaint, two months after allocation, they identified that the matter should be assessed as gross misconduct, and it was referred to the IOPC. By this time, local council CCTV was no longer available and opportunities to obtain eye witness accounts had been lost. This case is not an isolated incident, as similar issues have been identified through our Oversight work and on other IOPC cases that have initially been allocated to PSUs. In one such case, the complainant was waiting in a queue for allocation to a PSU officer for 6 months, during which time opportunities to preserve evidence were lost and the confidence of the complainant in the complaints process was impacted. If this recommendation is accepted by the MPS, as the duty to preserve evidence is a legal requirement, the IOPC are requesting a letter of assurance from the Commander of the Directorate of Professional Standards (DPS) setting out the steps they will be taking to ensure this legal obligation is being complied with. Do you accept the recommendation? Yes Show less

Force Response

Accepted action: The MPS accepts the IOPC’s recommendation and have taken the following steps to ensure that Basic Command Unit (BCU) Commanders ensure their Professional Standards Units (PSUs) are adhering to their legal duty under Schedule 3, Part 1 of … Read moreAccepted action: The MPS accepts the IOPC’s recommendation and have taken the following steps to ensure that Basic Command Unit (BCU) Commanders ensure their Professional Standards Units (PSUs) are adhering to their legal duty under Schedule 3, Part 1 of the Police Reform Act (PRA) 2002 to preserve evidence relating to complaints. On 8th July 2021, the Directorate of Professional Standards (DPS) Prevention and Learning Team (P&L) Engagement Team sent an e-mail to all MPS Professional Standards Units (PSU) and Appropriate Authorities (AA) reminding them of their responsibilities and legal duties to preserve evidence relating to complaints. It was emphasised that complaint handlers must look to secure any potential and all available evidence at the earliest opportunity. Any decision by a complaint handler to not carry out a particular line of enquiry, must be documented appropriately so it can be included with any background papers, should the complaint be subject to a subsequent review. The Commander for the DPS has written separately to the three NPCC Commanders for Frontline Policing who have responsibility for all BCUs, to disseminate a letter he has written to the BCU Commanders reminding them of their legal responsibilities and duties, and requesting that they enforce this message across their Commands. DPS P&L are in the process of creating a comprehensive investigators toolkit for complaint handlers which will include, but is not limited to, the following; This will be delivered in three phases, the first being anticipated in September 2021* and concluding December 2021. The material will be shared with the IOPC as part of this investigation In addition to the above, the DPS P&L Engagement Team will create a checklist to be completed on receipt of a complaint to ensure that any potential early evidence is considered and where appropriate seized. This will be disseminated to all complaint handlers and investigators and shared as above Whilst the MPS accepts this recommendation the MPS Commander for DPS does not have governance over PSUs, they are under the Commanders for Frontline Policing (FLP). The Commander has written to each of the FLP commanders to ensure they are fully sighted on the recommendation and the approach that is required. *This has been delayed until March 2022. Show less