Recommendation - Metropolitan Police Service, October 2024

Metropolitan Police Service · Ref: 2023/189814

Recommendation date: 16 October 2024

Response due: 11 December 2024

Published: 20 December 2024

We identified organisational learning following an IOPC investigation where we found that investigators who were on long-term sick leave, or away from their role on a secondment, were expected to retain their investigations while away. In some cases, they were allocated further work in their absence. Little to no progression was made on the investigations they had been assigned during their period of absence, increasing the risk of missed evidential opportunities, re-offending, and failing to deliver an appropriate criminal justice outcome.

View on IOPC website

Recommendations (1)

Recommendation Accepted

Recommendation

The IOPC recommends that the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) should put a process in place to re-allocate workloads where there is confirmation of an investigator’s absence from their role for a period of time either on leave, secondment or for … Read more

Force Response

Accepted The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) has reviewed and accepts the recommendation by the IOPC. To address the absence of an investigator – through sickness, abstraction, secondment or other reason – and the impact this may have on their investigative … Read moreAccepted The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) has reviewed and accepts the recommendation by the IOPC. To address the absence of an investigator – through sickness, abstraction, secondment or other reason – and the impact this may have on their investigative work file, the following has been added to the new General Investigations Policy (this policy is currently in draft form but due to be published imminently in the New Year). The policy introduces headings of ‘Supervisory Timings’ and ‘Handing Over an Investigation’ with the following detail: “Thereafter, ongoing supervision to occur within every 28 days, to be completed by the supervising PS/DS of the OIC. A meeting between the OIC and supervisor must be held to discuss the investigation at or before 28 days from report creation. Within these parameters, supervisors may tailor the depth and frequency of supervision dependent on their assessment on the nature and seriousness of the crime, associated risk and workloads and experience of the investigating officer.Supervisors must proactively supervise and undertake regular quality reviews of their team’s investigations and provide meaningful feedback. Unless the crime type has its own specific supervision time scale, supervisors must review their officer’s crime investigations and complete ongoing supervisor’s reviews at least every 14 days, ensuring investigators regularly progress and update crimes investigations and comply with standards of victim care and contact.” These supervisory additions will ensure investigative quality and momentum for reports of crime are maintained, with a dynamic risk assessment of the nature and seriousness of crime, associated risk and officer workloads to constantly assess and match the nuances of the case with the experience and workload of the investigating officer. This includes if an officer moves in/out of unit, including going off long term sick, which is specifically mentioned: “There are exceptional circumstances in which an investigation that has been progressed by an OIC needs to be transferred to a new OIC, for example, periods of sickness, an OIC moving department or leaving the team/unit. Changing the OIC for an investigation while it is ongoing can cause distress and disruption to a victim and should be avoided unless essential. If the transfer is anticipated, then the investigator is to ensure at the earliest opportunity that a formal handover is conducted with the new OIC and a full written investigative evaluation is recorded on the crime OFFICIAL Page 5 of 5 report. If it is not anticipated, and the OIC is unavailable to conduct a handover themselves, then the crime investigation supervisor must review the investigation and conduct a hand over to the new OIC once the need to transfer is identified.” Under the ‘Crime Allocation’ heading, proposed wording in the new draft GI Policy is: “Investigating officers’ workloads should also be monitored to ensure volumes and complexity of cases do not amount to an excess workload, and that further allocation is appropriate. Ensuring an officer has capacity includes managing work files through any periods of sickness, absence or abstraction that may feature. Officers should not be allocated files for further investigation when they are knowingly absent from work. Long-term absences impacting on investigations should be managed as per ‘Handing over a Crime Investigation’ guidance below.” The monitoring of this capacity includes managing any abstractions for the aforementioned reasons, to ensure that an officer is not assigned new cases when they are going to be absent. Show less