Crime might be falling, but the Met is letting London down

Sir Mark Rowley has been running the Met for just over three years and today Policy Exchange assesses the progress the force has made over that time – and perhaps more importantly, what needs to happen next.

Rowley took over a force which was utterly demoralised having spent the preceding years in one form of perma-crisis or another. His predecessor, Dame Cressida Dick, was despatched in 2022 after finally losing the confidence of her political masters. During Dick’s five years in office Londoner’s confidence in the Met had plummeted: from 68% of Londoners thinking the force was doing a good job in 2017 to fewer than half in 2022.

The last three years under Rowley has been a mixed picture.

There are indications that this year some types of crime – such as knife crime – are on a downward trend. Homicides in the capital are way down and as many as 95% of murders are solved every year. The Commissioner has personally pushed the force into the modern-era when it comes to the fight against crime, increasing the use of: facial recognition technology; analytics to target high-harm offenders; and drones to safely respond to incidents.

For all of this the Commissioner deserves credit.

But too much of what the Met does it continues to do inadequately. Reports of shoplifting have tripled in the last four years; only 1 in 20 robberies and 1 in 179 thefts such as pickpocketing are solved; “two-tier policing” has seemingly become embedded in how the Met deals with protests.

Facts like these mean the proportion of Londoners who think the force is doing a good job in their local area has fallen even further during Rowley’s time in office – to 45% in the twelve months to June 2025 – an all-time low since modern records began.

The question is how to get the Met into an improved position for the public and for Rowley’s successor as Commissioner: whether that comes in 2027 when his five-year term is up or, due to some currently unforeseen event, beforehand.

First, the Home Secretary needs to be far more closely involved in how the force operates. She should take over the democratic oversight of the Met from the Mayoralty of London – as used to be the case pre-2000 – so that Government and Parliament can more closely scrutinise the force.

Second, the Home Secretary should enable the Met to focus entirely on its principal duty as London’s local crime-fighting police force by removing the force’s role leading the national police counter-terrorism function.

But most important of all, the Commissioner needs to be willing to hold the Met’s senior leaders to account for their crime-fighting performance – with actual consequences for success and failure alike. For too long, too many of these so-called police leaders have been either distracted from, or just plain got away with being inadequate at, fighting crime. It is time for Rowley to say to the useless, their time is up.

____________________

David Spencer is the Head of Crime and Justice for Policy Exchange and a former Metropolitan Police Detective Chief Inspector.

LBC Opinion provides a platform for diverse opinions on current affairs and matters of public interest.

The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official LBC position.

To contact us email opinion@lbc.co.uk