Met Police to scrap borough model in favour of 12 basic command units
The Metropolitan Police Service is to replace its current 32 borough model by merging them into 12 Basic Command Units (BCUs).
The BCUs will be:
- Hammersmith and Fulham, Kensington and Chelsea, Westminster,
- Kingston, Merton, Richmond, Wandsworth
- Bromley, Croydon, Sutton
- Bexley, Greenwich, Lewisham
- Barking and Dagenham, Havering, Redbridge
- Ealing, Hillingdon, Hounslow
- Lambeth, Southwark
- Enfield, Haringey
- Hackney, Tower Hamlets
- Camden, Islington
- Barnet, Brent, Harrow
- Newham, Waltham Forest
The Met Police said: “In the current model, boroughs vary in size, have different ways of doing things and have different resources and issues. This can mean that demand is difficult to manage and our flexibility to meet new policing challenges is limited.
“BCUs will each deliver the same core local policing functions - neighbourhoods, emergency response, CID and safeguarding - in a more consistent way. Each BCU will be led by a chief superintendent who will be the BCU Commander.
“On a BCU, people, buildings and resources will be shared across the borough boundaries meaning greater flexibility in how these are used. The change will allow us to improve the service we provide to London in several ways as well as investing resources to address key priorities.”
It added that it continued to face a significant financial challenge, alongside increasing demand, and must make savings of £325m by 2021/22. Officer numbers are expected to fall to 30,000 by April, and further by 2021.
“We need to plan for a future with less, and become more resilient so we can continue to meet our financial and operational challenges, and our current and future policing challenges - terrorism and safeguarding in particular. Without significant changes in how we manage our resources we would be unable to meet these head on,” the Met Police said.
It claimed that the new model would enable it to invest in other areas of policing more effectively.
It argued that in BCUs there would be more police officers working with young people, educational establishments and care homes. “We will bring the management of issues such as anti-social behaviour and licensing into one team so we are working more closely with local authorities and our other partners.
The Met Police also claimed that the new BCU structure would see more officers responding to emergency calls across borough boundaries to fit with local needs and help those people who need us the most.
The BCU model has been tested in two areas since January 2017, bringing together Barking & Dagenham, Redbridge and Havering boroughs; and Camden and Islington boroughs.
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Mark Simmons, who has led the work, said: "Local policing is at the heart of what the Met does every day, and we will improve it further by offering a service that is more personal and responsive to the needs of Londoners.
"BCUs will allow us to put first victims of crime and those people who need us the most. Our new structure will also give us the resilience and consistency we need across the whole of London, so we can continue to respond to large scale incidents and meet the financial and operational challenges we are facing."
The roll-out across London will be staggered over the next 12 months following the decision.
The first of the boroughs to come together will be Ealing, Hillingdon and Hounslow; and Kingston, Merton, Richmond and Wandsworth.
Last month the London Borough of Havering launched a judicial review challenge to a decision by the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) and the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service to close police buildings in its area.
