Top cop questions whether Met has enough officers on duty on Saturdays as he makes comparison to busy retailers

24 April 2025, 17:08

By Henry Riley

@HenryRiley1

LBC has seen part of an internal memo from Assistant Commissioner Matt Twist to other senior officers within the Metropolitan Police.

A leaked memo seen by LBC from a senior officer within London’s Metropolitan Police suggests he doesn't think there are enough officers on the beat on Saturdays.

Saturday has traditionally been a busy protest day in the capital, but in recent years, there have been more regular pro-Palestinian demonstrations.

On April 19, a pro-trans rights protest saw seven statues damaged or vandalised.

Matt Twist, the force’s lead for frontline policing, admitted to colleagues that policing numbers on a Saturday are often “20-30% below” that of other days.

He drew a comparison with the retailer John Lewis, making the point that a store would never have “fewer staff” on “one of its busiest trading days”.

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In the memo, Assistant Commissioner Twist also suggests that officers should prioritise taking more care when they get to an incident, rather than monitoring "how many seconds" it took them to arrive.

Simon Ovens, a former veteran Met Police Borough Commander, said the comments were “very welcome”.

Mr Ovens, who led policing in three different boroughs – Harrow, Westminster and Merton – told LBC that “for many years, chief officers have been obsessed with the speed officers take to get to a call, and that came from central government.”

“During my time as a Borough Commander, I was specifically measured on the number of calls my officers got to within a set time. I have long been an advocate that it’s the quality of the response that is most important, not how quickly we get there.

“I would welcome Matt Twist's assertion that it’s far more important the quality of the work we do when we’re there, rather than how quickly we get there.”

Just weeks ago, Scotland Yard confirmed they would be axing 1,700 police, staff and community support officers as part of “substantial tough choices” amid a £260 million budget shortfall.

As part of the funding settlement with the Home Office, the UK’s largest police force also confirmed it would be drastically cutting its Royal Parks unit, Mounted Branch, as well as cutting the Dogs Unit and the MO7 Taskforce which tackles moped and e-bike robbers.

In his memo, Matt Twist underlines how to reassure the public as the changes are rolled out - so as “to give the impression that London isn’t lawless”.

The Conservative chairwoman of London's Police and Crime Committee Susan Hall has previously used the expression "lawless London", as has Reform UK MP Richard Tice.

Commenting on LBC's story, Mr Ovens also hit out at the state of policing in London, claiming that he doesn’t “see police officers”.

He admitted: “I don’t see officers in the very busiest parts when I’m there. The whole of London seems to smell of cannabis to me these days. The reporting that you see does give the impression that we are losing the grip of lawlessness in London.

“I suspect what Matt Twist meant is that he doesn’t want the public to feel like there is a lawless society, and by having officers on at the right time we can overcome that.

“The important thing is to have the right number of officers on at the right time. That demand profiling is very important. Sadly, response teams have been so diluted over the years with officers taken away for other duties, that there simply aren’t enough officers on at all for response policing.

“Any call for more officers on when demand is high must be welcomed, but we must remember officers have a life outside the police, and they can’t be on all of the time, it comes down to the lack of police numbers overall in London”.

A Scotland Yard spokesperson said they don't comment on leaks, while a Met source said the force was already moving more officers into operational roles including in neighbourhood policing.