My vision for the future of London’s policing

There is, as far as I know, only one capital city where tourists come from all over the world and buy countless plastic editions of a policeman's helmet.

They buy that helmet because the Metropolitan Police are an emblem of the city, as much as Big Ben or red buses. And that helmet somehow stands for the values of our city and our society.

It is not a symbol of some distant and arbitrary authority — as a policeman's uniform might be in other parts of the world. It is a symbol of helpfulness, fairness, and impartial upholding of the law — and that is a tribute to the hard work and success of the thousands of men and women of the Metropolitan Police.

That is why I am so proud today to be chairing my first meeting of the Metropolitan Police Authority. The strongest and most civilised societies are those where the police are closest to the citizens, where, in the phrase of Peel, "The police are the public and the public are the police."

Whatever the criticisms of modern policing, I believe we are closer to achieving that goal than we have been for many years. That is a credit to the achievements of Sir Ian Blair, who helped to introduce the PCSOs and the Safer Neighbourhood Teams, and who has overseen significant reductions in crime year on year. I renew my tribute to him.

But everyone in London wants the police to be able to get on with their jobs, with complete focus, and with an undistracted leadership. That is why I came, over a long period, to the reluctant conclusion that it was time for someone else to make a new start and offer a new lead at the top of the Met.

I recently had the privilege of attending a ceremony in Hendon, in honour of police officers of 20 years' service. What struck me was not just the sheer physical size of many policemen, but the extraordinary variety of roles they fulfil. I met the unseen heroes and heroines of the world of specialist crime, who deal with murders and kidnaps across the capital. I met men and women who work with dogs and horses and boats and planes and guns, who deal with art fraud and bank fraud and drugs. I met men and women who are professionally obliged to worry their spouses and partners, because it is their instinct to run towards trouble and not away from it.

It is not my job or the job of the MPA to attempt to micro-manage these officers. It is our job to set the strategic framework, to make sure they have the money they need, and to help them build on their successes.

We have huge challenges ahead, and the police are going to need our steadfast help and support. They are working hard to make public transport safer and to reduce disorder — especially on the buses. Thanks to operation Tyrol, funded by Transport for London, we will have more officers on the buses than at any time in the past 30 years.

In spite of the overall success in reducing crime, we have a specific problem with teenage killings and with knife crime. I believe we are doing the right thing to support Operation Blunt Two, which has used knife arches and wands to help lift 2,000 knives off the streets of London. Every one of those knives taken is potentially a tragedy averted and a life saved.

But we also need to recognise a grim paradox: that the more we talk about knife crime, and the more we dramatise it, the more some young people will operate under the delusion that to carry a knife is a mark of "respect". Somehow we need to shake them out of that delusion. We will now be working with the police in the run-up to the launch of our Youth Opportunities strategy in November.

I know how much thought and effort the police have been putting into diversion strategies over many years, and I know how much experience Tim Godwin and others have of working with the voluntary sector. We should not attempt to reinvent the wheel, nor should we believe that one individual agency has the answer. We need to work together to achieve long-lasting change.
We face a chronic threat of terrorism, and we are also asking the police to secure the Olympic Games. These are enormous undertakings. We must also ensure that we have a police force that has the full confidence of the community - and if the police are the public, and the public are the police, then the police must resemble the communities they serve.

That is why I have asked Cindy Butts to look at some key questions, such as the progression of black and minority ethnic candidates through the ranks of the service, the relation between staff associations and management, and the extent to which there is visible and effective leadership around race and faith issues. Above all we need to help the police in their fundamental duty - to instil confidence in the public, and a sense that the streets are safe. We know, because the figures tell us so, that crime is falling. We also know that the public don't believe that to be so, and they lack the trust they should have. It is our job to help the police to lift that cloud, and restore confidence to the streets.