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The force says...
The Met is the largest police force in Europe. It delivers policing services to 9 million Londoners across 620 square miles, 32 boroughs and 678 wards, and to millions of commuters and visitors to the capital.
After years of declining resources against rising demand, the Met is growing again thanks to the Uplift Programme: it currently has 33,567 police officers, its highest ever number. It is becoming more diverse: in 2021/22, 23 per cent of officer recruits were of Black, Asian or multiple ethnic heritage and 39 per cent were female. The Met is using the growth to build organisational strength, focusing on crime prevention and enforcement, working with communities to develop long-term solutions.
The Met has a significant strength in specialist crime, investigations and specialist operations. It co-ordinates Counter Terrorism policing nationally and is responsible for protecting the Royal Family, Parliament and the diplomatic corps. It provides support to more than 3,000 events annually: State visits, summits, protests, sporting, community and ceremonial events or festivals.
Through the pandemic, the Met continued to deliver a high quality and resilient service to Londoners. London’s crime rate in March 2022 stood at 92.3 per 1,000 population, broadly in line with the rest of England and Wales average (88.8) and substantially below similar large urban forces in England (124.2). There were fewer young victims of knife crime. Detection rate for homicide was 100 per cent in 2021.
The Met’s mission is to keep London safe for everyone and its vision to be the most trusted police service in the world. Whilst public trust is relatively high, it is declining, and there are clear disparities across communities. Rebuilding this trust, working to the highest standards and reducing violent crime are the current main areas of focus for the Met.
Disclaimer: the above statement has been prepared by Metropolitan Police Service. The views and information in it are not necessarily those of HMICFRS.