Announced a year after the August 2011 rioting, the Metropolitan Police has brought out a new set of standards on how the Met force speaks, listens and responds to businesses and others in London.
According to the Met, their Quality Standards for Engagement, introduced by the Met’s Deputy Assistant Commissioner Stephen Kavanagh, redefine standards for engagement with business, young people and communities; enhance the role of independent advice and set clear expectations about how the organisation reports back to the public.
The Met admits to lessons identified in key reviews of the widespread disorder, including the Met’s internal ‘Four days in August’ report plus liaison with businesses and stakeholders, such as the British Retail Consortium, over the past 12 months. Businesses criticised the police for not protecting property from looters, rioters and arsonists. The Met admitted failings in its planning, intelligence gathering and operations after the death of Mark Duggan in Tottenham in north London. You can download the ‘Four Days in August’ report at www.met.police.uk; it was featured in the April 2012 print issue of Professional Security magazine.
As well as setting new standards for business engagement, other distinct areas are Community Engagement; Youth Engagement; Community Tension Monitoring and Independent Advisors.
Each area comprises five promises which will seek to allow boroughs and central departments to meet the required new standards. Promises include appointing a single point of contact for businesses within each borough senior leadership team, and ensuring business engagement crime partnerships are part of borough control frameworks.
Other promises to communities include setting up a dedicated youth engagement co-ordinator in every borough, and holding four open public meetings in each ward during the year. The new standards also outline measures that will according to the Met enable better community tension monitoring and independent advice, and the introduction of an induction and awareness programme for independent advisors.
Metropolitan Police DAC Stephen Kavanagh said; “Key issues about the way we engage with business and other communities identified from several reviews of last summer have been brought together into our new Quality Standards for Engagement. I witnessed at first hand the destructive force of last summer’s disorder and so I am totally committed to the promises we are making in these Quality Standards.
“We fully acknowledge the importance of businesses within our communities and it is crucial for the police to have effective engagement with businesses no matter how big or small. Effective policing cannot succeed without it. There has been some fantastic work done across London improving the way we talk and listen to Londoners, and the new Quality Standards will up our game and improve the quality of the conversations we are having with our communities.
“These new standards will enable the Met to move forward and build on our past experience, and will improve the way we listen and respond to business and other communities in London.”
British Retail Consortium Head of Crime Policy, Catherine Bowen, said: “The riots of last summer had a significant impact on retailers. Over 20,000 retail staff were affected in some way and nearly 7 per cent of all the country’s retail outlets. The violence highlighted how vulnerable the retail sector can be and therefore how important it is we are able to work well with the police.
“The Met’s new Quality Standards for Engagement are a great result. We’ve been working extensively with the Metropolitan Police to make sure they understand the role retailers play in local communities and to show them how businesses can support the fight against crime. In particular, it’s good to know businesses will soon have a single point of contact in every London borough they can liaise with and get reliable information from.
“We’re looking forward to continuing our work with the Met. We’ve already supported Operation Stimtone, providing information to help tackle economic crime, and retailers are benefiting from improved communication with the police during the Olympic and Paralympic Games.”
The full promises for businesses within the new Quality Standards for Engagement are:
We will ensure that local business is reflected in the make up of Ward Panels and integrated into local problem–solving meetings and joint action groups
We will appoint a single point of contact (SPOC) within the Leadership team for business engagement on every borough
We will ensure that business engagement action plans and business crime partnerships are enshrined within Borough control frameworks.
We will devise an Met Business Crime Control Framework ensuring that the issues of greatest concern to business are considered for proactive tasking opportunities, and making use of business information and technology in support of identified priorities.
We will work with Industry Sector leads, trade associations and other relevant groups to promote the safety and security of business staff, customers and property via further development of the Cross–Sector Safety and Security Communications network.
We are introducing a new three tier model to managing business engagement in the MPS to encourage the development of innovative partnership working and ensure the provision of timely relevant and authoritative information
We recognise businesses as partners in the fight against crime and that, by valuing and working collaboratively with business partners, we will achieve much more in reducing crime and anti–social behaviour.
We respect the important role businesses have within our communities and their commitment to managing local problems and helping to reduce crime and disorder. We are therefore committed to improving engagement with business, at strategic and local levels, building on and expanding good practice and creating innovative partnerships to bring about crime reductions in London’s neighbourhoods.
In support of this work we will seek out and share good practice across the Met and with industry working with the London Resilience Business Forum.
Background
You can read the interim and final reports of the government-appointed Riots Communities and Victims Panel at http://riotspanel.independent.gov.uk. The final report has links to Wandsworth, Ealing and other more local reports.
