Specialist Crime

Criminal networks strategy

The new approach to criminal networks is being developed across the organisation, and many of the processes and methodology are in place within SCD. A phased roll-out is planned for later in the year in order to collate a pan-London picture of criminal networks.

Looking at the wider picture

Shifting our use of intelligence from purely looking at types of crime to also looking at networks and their activities.

Criminal networks are involved in a range of activities, and historically a variety of MPS units would look at specific crime types rather than networks as a whole. We are re-organising our intelligence processes and establishing contacts across the MPS and with other agencies to capture all relevant information and intelligence. We now identify the core nominals in criminal networks, their role in the local community and where they operate locally, nationally and internationally.

Safer Neighbourhood Teams and Borough Intelligence Units are key intelligence providers to enable a fuller understanding of criminal networks.

Identifying harm

We are developing work to identify and reduce harm from criminal networks to neighbourhoods and communities.

The understanding of both direct and indirect harm and harm reduction is evolving within government and the MPS is leading the way on how to measure and assess it.

The categories of harm, as shown on the Matrix, are divided into social, economic, political and indirect harm, which directly link to the criminal activities that each network is involved in.

We are in the process of identifying how harm is perceived within communities; this involves carrying out surveys and regular community consultation. The Met's Corporate Control Strategy and Policing Plan both contain actions, which will progress understanding of and prevention of harm. The MPS is not expected to deliver harm reduction alone but in partnership with other government agencies, law enforcement and the private sector we can work towards this objective.

This is a Government wide agenda and requires a multi-agency problem solving approach.

Prioritising our activities

Prioritising police activity to those networks and individuals causing the most harm.

The MPS tasking process, utilising the Criminal Networks Prioritisation Matrix, will ensure that we focus operational and intelligence resources on those criminal networks and core nominals that cause the most harm. The Matrix also allows us to identify intelligence needs about particular criminal networks and the impact they are having on communities in order to take appropriate action to address these gap. This prioritisation will improve working together across the Met and with other law enforcement agencies such as the Serious and Organised Crime Agency (SOCA).

Recognising success

To identify our success in disrupting criminal networks we will:

• Set measurable targets;
• Assess our tactics at regular intervals; and
• Establish a way of measuring harm reduction within communities (in conjunction with the Home Office).