Organisation and structure of the Metropolitan Police Service


The Metropolitan Police Service of Greater London is organised into four main directorates, each with differing responsibilities. These are Frontline Policing, Met Operations, Specialist Operations and six civilian staffed support departments under the umbrella of Met Headquarters. Each is overseen by an Assistant Commissioner, or in the case of a support department a director of police staff which is the equivalent civilian grade.
The Management Board, responsible for the strategic direction of the MPS is composed of the senior police leadership including the Commissioner, Deputy Commissioner, the four Assistant Commissioners and five directors.

Leadership

The senior leadership rank-holders of the MPS currently are:
The highest rank in the MPS is that of the Commissioner, the operational leader; however the MPS is accountable to the Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime on a pan-London basis and the Home Secretary on a national policing basis.
Appointments to the most senior ranks of Assistant Commissioner and above are made in consultation with the Mayor of London and the Home Secretary, with the appointment of the Deputy Commissioner and Commissioner being formally made by Her Majesty The Queen.

Frontline Policing

The Frontline Policing Directorate, formerly known as Territorial Policing, is commanded by Assistant Commissioner Nick Ephgrave, who is responsible for providing the day-to-day local policing of Greater London, the police area defined in legislation as the Metropolitan Police District.

Basic Command Units (BCU)

Until 2018 the MPD was divided into 32 Borough Operational Command Units ; with each London borough assigned a BOCU. Each BOCU was commanded by a Chief Superintendent. In early 2018 it was announced that there would be a radical shake up of local policing in London, largely due to police funding constraints. Over the following 12 months all BOCUs would be merged with others to form 12 Basic Command Units. This followed a trial of two 'pathfinder' BCUs, Central North BCU consisting of the old Islington BOCU with Camden BOCU and the East Area BCU consisting of the old Barking & Dagenham BOCU, Havering BOCU and Redbridge BOCU.
Each BCU are provided with:
The 12 BCU structure consists of the following boroughs:
  1. Central West BCU – Hammersmith and Fulham, Kensington and Chelsea, Westminster
  2. South West BCU – Kingston, Merton, Richmond, Wandsworth
  3. South BCU – Bromley, Croydon, Sutton
  4. South East BCU – Bexley, Greenwich, Lewisham
  5. East BCU – Barking and Dagenham, Havering, Redbridge
  6. West BCU – Ealing, Hillingdon, Hounslow
  7. Central South BCU – Lambeth, Southwark
  8. North BCU – Enfield, Haringey
  9. Central East BCU – Hackney, Tower Hamlets
  10. Central North BCU Camden, Islington
  11. North West BCU – Barnet, Brent, Harrow
  12. North East BCU – Newham, Waltham Forest
There has been significant concern raised in various quarters over these changes.

Non-BCU Frontline Policing

Met Operations, also known as Met Ops, is one of the four business groups which forms the Metropolitan Police Service. It was created during the 2018–19 restructuring of the service, amalgamating much of its functions from the previous Specialist Crime & Operations Directorate. The group is currently led by Assistant Commissioner Louisa Rolfe.
It consists of several branches:
is a directorate of the Metropolitan Police Service, responsible for providing specialist policing capabilities. Until Sir Kenneth Newman's restructuring of the Metropolitan Police, SO comprised twenty units, but after the restructuring most of them were absorbed by Central Operations.
SO is currently headed by Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu, with two Deputy Assistant Commissioners and a further three Commanders.
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SO is currently organised into three Commands:

Protection Command

Split into the following specialist operational areas:
Formed by the merger of Special Branch and the Anti-Terrorist Branch. The priority of this command is to keep the public safe and to ensure that London remains a hostile environment for terrorists. Their responsibilities include: bringing to justice anyone engaged in terrorism or related offences, preventing and disrupting terrorist activity, gathering and exploiting intelligence on terrorism and extremism in London.

Security Command

Security Command is currently headed by Commander Simon Bray.
The following table gives the police strength in the MPS by rank.
DateConstablesSergeantsInspectorsCh InspectorsSuperintendentsCh SuperintendentsACPO rankTotal
31 March 201024,7886,0691,695475217863733,367
31 March 201124,5955,5831,503448196813432,441
31 March 201224,3285,4941,641362201793532,140
31 March 201323,2834,9821,442452157723130,398
31 March 201424,4204,6441,235422109732930,932
31 March 201525,8514,3211,103333165762931,877
31 March 201625,7874,5481,261279159622932,125
31 March 201824,1494,4561,234275197463430,390

Total workforce

The following table gives the workforce numbers in the MPS.
DateStaff membersPCSOsPolice officersTotalSpecial constables
31 March 201014,1794,64533,36752,1913,177
31 March 201113,6884,00932,44150,1384,944
31 March 201212,7512,76032,14047,6515,752
31 March 201312,3282,68430,39845,4105,303
31 March 201411,3032,08730,93244,3224,587
31 March 201510,5991,78731,87744,2633,659
31 March 20169,5211,62632,12543,2723,271

Film Unit

The MPS Film Unit was launched in 2006 and manages the commercial filming schedule across London on behalf of local councils and major production companies including MGM as well as producers for various film and TV commercials. The Film Unit is based in Southwark and is maintained by current serving police officers. The Film Unit provides operational officers to ensure security for film companies and the general public. It is part of the Film London Partnership which is supported by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, the Mayor of London and Film London.