Drug offences during COVID pandemic frm January 2020 and January 2022
Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.22.023232
I note you seek access to the following information:
I would be grateful to receive some figures that I could reflect on, regarding drug offences during the Covid 19 Pandemic. I also have some questions on any variations in resources due to Covid to enable me to explore the Police ability to deal with those offences.
1. I require data surrounding recorded drug offences by type, by the Metropolitan Police before, during and after the Covid 19 restrictions in Calendar years.
The times in question are:
• January – March 2020
• March – June 2020
• October – December 2020
• January – March 2021
• November 2021 – January 2022
2. I require information on targets for drug offences during the time periods stated, and whether they were met, not met, exceeded, or raised.
3. I am also requesting information on any additional allocated resources, or variations of which, that were issued in response to Policing the pandemic, specifically, drug offences. These could include an increase in budget or finance, extra staff and/or overtime allowances, additional equipment, or other resources. If possible, could you please note when this was introduced.
4. I would like to know the statistics on the staff recruitment / turnover rates during the time periods stated.
5. I also require information on any additional protocols and powers for the Police due to Covid 19 when engaging with suspects.
My research question is “To what extent has the covid 19 pandemic affected the Metropolitan Police response to drug offences?”, so if there is any other information that you could give me regarding providing an insight or perspective that may affect this, I would greatly appreciate it.
Decision
I have today decided to disclose the located information to you in full.
Please find below information pursuant to your request above.
Q1 - I require data surrounding recorded drug offences by type, by the Metropolitan Police before, during and after the Covid 19 restrictions in Calendar years.
The times in question are:
• January – March 2020
• March – June 2020
• October – December 2020
• January – March 2021
• November 2021 – January 2022
Please see the attached.
Q2 - I require information on targets for drug offences during the time periods stated, and whether they were met, not met, exceeded, or raised
I have been advised that no Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) were set during this period. However I have provided the link below which shows drug offences during the pandemic which you may find useful. On the link you are able to select start and end dates (as well as different crimes) which can be broken down into the dates above.
MPS Stats and Data - Crime Data Dashboard
Q3 - I am also requesting information on any additional allocated resources, or variations of which, that were issued in response to Policing the pandemic, specifically, drug offences. These could include an increase in budget or finance, extra staff and/or overtime allowances, additional equipment, or other resources. If possible, could you please note when this was introduced.
In relation to drug offences, these effect all areas of policing so to try and answer this question would be particularly difficult and very time consuming. Any officer at any time may come across a drug offence on the streets of London and a crime may be recorded. This could be an officer from the local borough and therefore the budget and resource would come from that borough and would not be centrally held.
There may have been a scenario where a local borough, who have particularly high drug related offences, could have set up a specific ‘team’ in order to deal with the situation, this could comprise of officers who were on that borough anyway so that wouldn’t be an ‘additional’ source neither would the monies come from an ‘additional’ budget.
To try and answer your request, every unit, borough, BOCU and OCU in the MPS would need to be contacted to see if a specific team was set up to address any drug related issues in their borough which would be a huge task and more than likely take in excess of the 18hrs provided under the Act.
Q4 - I would like to know the statistics on the staff recruitment / turnover rates during the time periods stated.
This information is already published, for data in relation to 2021 please see the following link:
MPS Stats and Data - Workforce Data Report
For previous disclosure please see the following link:
Q5 - I also require information on any additional protocols and powers for the Police due to Covid 19 when engaging with suspects.
No additional powers or protocols were put in place, however MPS officers, in addition to regular powers, did follow the below legislation during the pandemic.