Can Mark Rowley successfully reform the Met Police?

The awful news that two police officers were stabbed in London this morning is an example of the challenges facing the new Metropolitan Police Commissioner Mark Rowley. As I say in the Times today, he must deal with low morale in the Met, a lack of public confidence in the force and a rising sense of lawlessness.

David Spencer, a former Met officer who is now at Policy Exchange, has written an interesting report on what Rowley can do to turn things around. Its main argument is that the attempt by the Met to create a ‘strategic centre’ has failed and it needs to return to neighbourhood policing as the most effective way of cutting crime and restoring public confidence. Until four years ago, all 32 London boroughs had a chief superintendent in charge of local policing. But since 2018 these chief superintendents are in charge of huge swathes of territory made up of between two and four boroughs.