The Policing Pledge was created, in large part, as a public promise as to the levels of
service that the public should expect from police forces across the country. A series of
performance measures were aligned with the individual Pledge commitments and shortly
thereafter forces were subject to an inspection by Her Majesties Inspectorate of
Constabulary (HMIC). The learning from this inspection has since been addressed though
an action plan. The bureaucracy of collecting performance data in respect of each Pledge
element created a costly process. Some elements of the Pledge did not naturally lend
themselves to automated, lean data collection (for example, the percentage of SNT time
spent working visibly on a neighbourhood).
Other Pledge elements could have driven the organization towards a culture of achieving
the individual measures at the expense of delivering a tailored and high quality service.
As an example, merely achieving a publicized promise to schedule public engagement
meetings can nevertheless mask poor quality interactions with the public. There can be a
danger of hitting the target but missing the point. The relatively recent removal of the
Policing Pledge was seen as an opportunity to allow the MPS to re-focus staff and
customers on the key objectives and standards that the organization intends to deliver. A
commitment to the people of London that can be tailored to suit the needs of local
neighbourhoods and communities, rather than a national generic Pledge, will enable the
MPS to keep its grip of the current progress and improvements made in customer service.
The MPS has proposed a series of key promises that could form the basis of the
replacement for the Pledge i.e. Met promises, the monitoring of the promises can be
achieved using existing corporate data that tracks activity and outcomes against quality
and satisfaction rather than statistical targets. The proposed measures will allow Pan
London and business area management to understand headline performance relating to
confidence and satisfaction. It will also provide them with diagnostic data sets that will
allow the identification of the causal factors behind both poor and good performance.
In response to the discussion at the MPA Community Engagement and Citizen Focus
(CECF) Committee in December 2010, we are in the process of arranging consultation
that offers informed briefings by July 2011 for each borough Community Police
Engagement Group (CPEG) on the development of Met Promises. Borough commanders
will be provided with briefing notes and a short slide presentation giving an overview of
the work to date: from the MPS response to the abolition of the Policing Pledge and the
development of Met Promises. CPEGs will be asked to respond to the proposed Met
Promises.
Individual boroughs performance is constantly monitored and assessed through several
tactical and strategic processes. The key performance indicators are produced weekly for
every borough in the form of a weekly scorecard to allow for internal scrutiny within
their existing performance framework. Within the Territorial Policing performance
framework, Area Commanders meet monthly with their Borough Chief Superintendents
to scrutinize strategic management, performance and operational activity. A Key
Performance Review meeting (KPRM) is held quarterly for the boroughs of each area.
These meetings are chaired by the Deputy Assistant Commissioner of TP with the
relevant Area Commander present and Borough Commanders are held to account for
their borough’s performance, with a detailed scrutiny of crime performance and key
public confidence and satisfaction data.
Borough commanders and CPEGs will also be able to call upon the support and expertise
of senior practitioners from the Crime and Customer Strategy Command in delivering
these briefings. Prior to publication and the feedback from CPEGs, Met Promises will be
adapted by the DPA and ‘acceptance tested’. We will then seek to include the statements
in external communications and publicise accordingly. Performance Board commissioned
further development of the public messages and consideration of how the MPS could
measure the success against the promises without recreating the scorecard used to assess
the Policing Pledge. Progress on this was summarised to the MPA Strategic and
Operational Policing Committee who requested further information and development.
Fairness
We will always treat you fairly with dignity and respect, ensuring you have fair access to
our services at a time that is reasonable and suitable for you.
Responding and listening to your concerns
We will answer all telephone calls promptly. We will respond rapidly in cases of
emergency. If we agree that police attendance is needed in other situations, we will send
a patrol, giving you an estimated time of arrival and if we fail to keep to this we will
explain why. If we agree with you that the attendance of a police officer is not necessary
we will give you advice, answer your questions and / or put you in touch with someone
more appropriate who can help.
Your local Safer Neighbourhood Team will organise a range of opportunities to allow
you to tell us about the issues of crime and disorder that matter to you and for you to find
out how you can become involved in dealing with these issues. We will publicise these
events and our attendance widely and in a variety of ways so that they are inclusive and
involve the widest representation from your local community.
Problem solving; we will work hard together with our local partners to put in place long
term solutions to persistent crime and anti-social behaviour problems in your area.
Your local Safer Neighbourhoods Team
We will provide you with information so you know who the members of your dedicated
Safer Neighbourhood Team are, where they are based, how to contact them and how to
work with them.
We will ensure your Safer Neighbourhood Team and other police patrols are visible and
in your neighbourhood at times when they will be most effective and when you tell us
you most need them.
Keeping you informed
We will give you the latest information on what we have achieved to reduce crime and
disorder and improve the safety of your local community. We will provide specific
information about local crime and disorder issues and continue to make this available on
the MPS website – viewed through the web pages of your local borough police.
If you have been a victim of crime, we will agree with you how often you would like to
be kept informed of progress in your case and for how long. You have the right to be kept
informed at least every month if you wish, and for as long as is reasonable. (NB this is
consistent with Victim Code of Practice legislation).
When things go wrong
If we fail to deliver the high standards of service that we strive for, we will agree with
you what will be done to put it right and in the most effective way to your satisfaction.
We will also try to put in place measures to prevent it happening again.