Metropolitan Police Media Service Level Statement

• Newsdesk’s operating hours are 08:00hrs to 20:00hrs Monday to Friday and 10:00hrs to 18:00hrs on weekends and bank holidays.
• An on-call press officer is contactable outside these hours.
• Please only contact the on-call press officer in relation to an ongoing, major incident where there is wide and immediate risk to public safety.
• All other out-of-hours enquiries should be emailed to us.
• They will be dealt with when the office next reopens.

• Before journalists submit an enquiry, please ensure our news website has been checked – as well as key social channels such as X (@metpoliceuk).
• If the required information is not readily available or you have further questions, contact us via:
  • Email: [email protected]
  • Phone: 0204 606 0777

• An enquiry can be submitted by an accredited journalist who is representing a recognised media outlet.
• We will ask freelance journalists to confirm their piece is commissioned, for example by an editor of a publication, however we recognise there will be occasions when freelance journalists make enquiries in order to research a story before pitching.
• We reserve the right to make a judgement on a case-by-case basis.
• Where a journalist routinely makes media enquiries without a commission and there is no resulting coverage (beyond self-published articles on websites/blogs), we are unlikely to provide a response to future queries.
• We will assist citizen journalists, those who self-publish on platforms such as Substack, or prominent influencers if priorities allow.
• We may ask about your audience size and reach to inform our decision about whether or not we assist.
• When seeking to confirm that an enquiry is made for journalistic purposes, we may ask further questions.
• These may include whether the person making the enquiry holds a UKPCA press card (or international equivalent) or is able to provide proof of employment at a media outlet, or a commission by a media outlet.
• We do not have the resources to provide responses to students or university outlets, nor those on work experience.

We are unable to search the Met Police’s incident systems in relation to media enquiries without specific information, so the Newsdesk requires as many details as possible to source accurate information.

We require:

• The location of an incident – road or street is sufficient.
• The exact date and in most cases the approximate time of the incident (within one hour), or the date it was reported to us if not a breaking matter.
• The nature of the incident (eg reports of a stabbing, reports of a crime scene relating to a sexual assault).

We are also able to respond to enquiries which include an incident reference number.

These are often three or four-digit codes which are supplied to victims of crime – an example is: 1234/25DEC.

They can also look like this: 01/XXXXXXX/26.

In these cases, we still require an outline of the incident, e.g. assault, burglary, and the date and location, to ensure we are researching the correct matter.

Please also ensure a deadline is included in your email.

• We receive thousands of queries per month ranging from hyper-local to international media.
• This means we have to prioritise based on capacity, resource, severity, risk and harm. Part 2 of our SLS provides further detail around this.
• This SLS also outlines what information we require before we can respond.
• Please note that if there is a major, ongoing incident our responses will likely be issued proactively on our news website and/or on social media, so please check these before contacting us.
• In relation to ongoing investigations, we will not provide a running commentary and respond to queries which simply ask us for any update.
• Instead, media will be required in most instances to ask specific questions, while providing the correlating information e.g. specific details about an arrest – date/time/location it took place and gender/age of the person arrested.
• We are unable to assist with speculative enquiries which do not meet the above criteria, for example: “I have heard police sirens on Park Road.”, “Why are there two police helicopters flying above Westminster?” “Why is Cricklewood Broadway taped off by police?”.
• We are also unable to respond to media enquiries which only provide links of footage from social media channels, or to articles by another media outlet.
• Instead, we require the information as set out above.

• In line with national guidance the Met does not confirm the name of anyone arrested and will not provide a statement in response to emails in which a person is named.
• This includes where a person may have identified themselves, for example via an official statement or on social media.
• We will also not provide a statement to enquiries with links to other articles.
• We instead require journalists to provide enough information for us to be able to trace a matter without searching for a name on Met systems, which we are not able to do.

Required information includes:

• The location and date of arrest, or alternatively, the date and location of the offences under investigation.
• For non-recent offences, we will consider accepting a broad date range and location dependant on the specific circumstances.
• The age and gender of the person who has been arrested or who is under investigation.
• The nature of the alleged offence for which they have been arrested or are under investigation.

When being provided a response, the Met does not identify any person who may or may not be subject to an investigation.

Being given a statement is not a confirmation of any name or profession media may attribute or wish to attribute.

Should media attribute a name or profession to any person under investigation in an article, this will not have been confirmed by the Met.

• Please ensure you have met the above criteria before submitting a query.
• The press officer dealing with your query will always aim to confirm receipt and meet reasonable deadlines.
• We will contact journalists if we don’t believe we can meet a deadline.
• Feature requests or general queries on the Met’s response to specific types of crime, such as phone theft or violence against women and girls, will be sent to our proactive media teams via the Newsdesk so they can assist.

These queries will be considered immediately or as quickly as possible:

• An ongoing terrorism incident.
• Critical or major incidents where there is a wide risk to public safety.
• Ongoing large-scale public disorder, e.g. riots, significant violence, mass arrests.
• Homicides.
• Rape, sexual offences and domestic abuse.
• Matters which significantly affect communities’ trust and confidence in the Met.
• High risk missing people.
• Hate crime against all communities.

We will aim to consider these queries on the day they are submitted:

• Ongoing fatal road traffic collisions (RTCs).
• RTCs which have followed a police pursuit.
• Attempted murder or serious violence, such as stabbings or shootings.
• Other ongoing significant public order events or protests.
• Cyber attacks.
• Matters which have an impact on communities’ trust and confidence in the Met.
• Other missing people cases.
• A concern for the welfare of an individual.
• Threats, abuse, harassment, spiking and stalking against an individual.

We will aim to consider these queries as soon as priorities allow:

• Incidents which are not contemporaneous.
• A series of incidents or linked offences of theft, shoplifting, antisocial behaviour, criminal damage, car crime, bike theft, burglary, trespass.
• Robbery.
• Follow-up enquires about previous public order events.
• Assaults, where injuries are non-life-threatening or life-changing.
• Fraud and economic crime.
• Suspicious packages – we will provide guidance to media but only a statement if an incident is confirmed as suspicious. We remind the media of our ask not to publicise false alarms or hoaxes.
• Non-suspicious deaths in a public place.

We will inform media we are not able to provide a response:

• All non-fatal RTCs.
• Incidents which are led by another agency, for example the fire brigade or local authority.
• Matters in which media name an individual under investigation or arrested.
• Individual offences of theft not involving violence, shoplifting, antisocial behaviour, criminal damage (other than that related to hate crime), car crime, bike theft, burglary, trespass, other than those matters that have a wider impact on local communities and/or significantly impact trust and confidence in the Met.
• Wildlife crime, other than criminal offences that have a wider and significant impact on local communities.
• Non-suspicious deaths in private residential addresses, unless there is wider or previous police involvement.
• Information relating to personal protection status of an individual.
• General queries on road closures, traffic updates, police cordons or a police presence in an area.
• National policing issues, including national statistics will be referred to the NPCC.
• National counter-terrorism policing matters will be referred to Counter Terrorism Policing HQ.
• Civil matters, e.g. landlord disputes.

• Legal proceedings are active once someone is arrested as outlined by the Contempt of Court Act 1981.
• We are therefore limited in what we can provide after this stage.
• We will not confirm the identity of an arrested person and emails which name an arrested person will not be responded to, as outlined in earlier sections.
• Charges in relation to significant or particularly newsworthy cases will be issued proactively via our news website.
• Others will be provided upon request.

The Newsdesk is unable to assist with research around policing practices that may be required for a book or drama project. Technical interviews with a relevant officer can be arranged for a fee by contacting our Commercial Services team via the Newsdesk.

• We will not confirm details of police bail conditions while a suspect remains under investigation.
• We will not confirm specific bail dates but will confirm the month a suspect is bailed to return to police.
• Enquiries about court bail conditions should be directed to the individual court or relevant judicial body.
• We proactively issue updates for significant cases, on our news website, including in relation to charge, conviction or sentence.
• For less significant cases we will direct the media to court for any information that is publicly available.
• Media enquiries on the progress of a case through court, for example administrative or plea hearings, should be directed to the relevant court service in the first instance.

• We will consider requests to issue body worn video via the Newsdesk and will also proactively issue footage to improve transparency and trust in policing where necessary and proportionate following incidents.
• A decision to release footage will always consider the Met's legal obligations, including data protection, any operational risk and the impact on future legal proceedings.

We do not release the identity of anyone who receives a police caution. If asked about a specific case, we can confirm the fact that a person was cautioned but we will not confirm their name.

• Information will be provided in response to media enquiries about complaints against the police in line with the College of Police APP.
• We cannot respond on the basis of names of officers put to us and require date, location and nature of complaint. This includes in relation to matters shown on social media.

We will only respond to media enquiries on follow-up condition checks in relation to violent crime where a victim was deemed to be in a life-threatening condition. Where we update that a condition check has changed to non-life-changing or something less serious, this will be the final update.

• Where practicable and proportionate, we aim to issue custody images to the media. However, requests will always be considered on a case-by-case basis.
• For new requests made on the day of a conviction or the day after, we will provide the custody image. We will not provide images for new requests made after this point.
• For new requests made on sentencing or the day after, we will only provide images for defendants who have received an immediate custodial sentence of 12 months or more in line with our proportionality criteria. Where requests meet these criteria, we will only provide images where they have been requested on the day or the day after a sentencing hearing.
• We will not re-issue custody images to general media relating to a case more than three months following the sentencing. We reserve the right to issue images or material after this time for documentary projects we are engaged and assisting with.
• We also reserve the right to proactively issue a custody image to media beyond the day or the day after conviction or sentencing if it aligns with a wider proactive piece of work.
• In some circumstances we may not have a custody image, for example if a defendant was not arrested before charge but instead interviewed under caution.
• If you wish to request a custody image, please provide the defendant’s name, date of birth, address, conviction or sentencing outcome, and the relevant case file reference number on the court list. We are unable to respond to enquiries without this information.

• We will release the identity of people who have died in suspicious circumstances only once next-of-kin enquiries have been completed. We will always take a family’s wishes into consideration. Unless the family grant permission to name the deceased sooner, in most cases we will also wait for formal identification.
• We will not identify anyone who has died in non-suspicious or unexplained circumstances unless a bereaved family wishes us to do so. Any requests for this information should be directed to the relevant coroner.

We will provide information about deaths in custody and deaths following police contact in line with the College of Policing APP guidance.

It will include:

• Confirmation that a death has occurred, including when and where and basic circumstances as appropriate.
• Confirmation that the matter has been referred to the IOPC as the body that investigates all deaths in custody or deaths following police contact.
• Once the IOPC has begun an investigation, they will take the lead on communications around the incident including releasing details of the deceased subject to next-of-kin having been informed and consenting. We will continue to provide information on matters specific to the Met, for example the work status of any officers involved.

• All requests should be made through our Newsdesk along with a summary of the production.
• We can only consider assisting if the documentary has been commissioned.
• To manage expectations, we are unlikely to provide interviews or material for documentaries which look back at non-recent solved cases.

All requests should be made through our Newsdesk with clear rationale for the request alongside a deadline.

All requests should be made through our Newsdesk with clear rationale for the request alongside a deadline.

• A major incident in policing is an event that puts people’s lives, safety, or a community at significant risk, and often requires a coordinated response from police and other emergency services (such as ambulance and fire).
• A major incident will always have a primary lead agency. In incidents where that is not the police, the Newsdesk will often direct media to the relevant partner agency.
• If urgent messages need to be delivered to the public, we will prioritise the use of our social media channels to warn and inform. We ask the media to amplify these in the event of a marauding terrorist attack or other incidents where lives are at risk.
• Please note that during major incidents, our communications channels are used to proactively share available information. During this time, our resources are being mobilised to respond according to our major incident plan. We are unlikely to have the capacity to deal with individual media enquiries in the early stages.

This is a platform which is run by local police officers with a specific aim of updating their local communities. Due to the volume of posts, we are unable to respond to follow-up enquiries from the media around these. However, media are welcome to use the content within reporting.

• We follow the College of Policing’s APP around misconduct and criminal matters concerning our officers. We will proactively issue charge lines for serving officers for all on-duty criminal offences and for off-duty offences in the most serious cases. We will issue information on conviction/sentencing for the most serious matters.
• Notices for misconduct hearings and outcomes are published on our website and media can apply to attend a hearing. In the most serious cases we will proactively issue a press release if, following a hearing, an officer has been dismissed without notice.
• In less significant criminal or misconduct matters concerning our officers we will answer reactive queries. Where information is already held on the Met website, we will direct media there.

• We routinely publish details of high-risk missing people on our social media accounts and will also respond to media queries about specific cases.
• We treat each case individually, taking into account the vulnerability of the person and ensuring any details do not increase their risk of harm. We do not publish surnames in our social media posts to limit online legacy. We may choose to provide a full name in a media appeal if it is proportionate.
• Comments are turned off on our social posts, but we encourage our posts to be reshared.
• If a missing person is found, we will delete the appeal on social channels and inform any media who published or shared the post. This rescinds the permission to use the image originally issued for the missing person appeal and therefore images must not be archived or copyrighted by news organisations.

• We will always aim to release material shown in court in line with the CPS media protocol.
• We will consider each request on a case-by-case basis in liaison with the CPS, according to open justice principles, and subject to availability or deadlines. Where material is withheld or delayed, we will explain this decision-making. For example, we may withhold material after consulting with victims, witnesses and their families, or having considered interests of national security.
• We will not release any evidential material before it has been shown in court, as it could jeopardise proceedings.
• For ongoing trials, where the prosecution has given permission to release material during the proceedings, we would ask media to work closely with us on requests. Requests that come into us after court has concluded for the day are unlikely to be fulfilled due to resourcing and capacity.
• On cases where material has not been provided during the course of an ongoing trial, we will consider requests to release material ahead of a verdict under embargo to help media prepare their stories. This is on the understanding that the material will be used only if the jury returns a guilty verdict. We will require written confirmation that these conditions will be abided by.
• We ask that the media request material in a timely manner to give us the opportunity to consider requests, get operational sign off and make any redactions to material (such as blurring etc).
• Given this, we will not consider requests for new material beyond the day or day after conviction or sentencing. Again, we ask media if they are following a case to come in at the earliest opportunity so we can consider their requests. Please note, if media come in at short notice about a case that we were not previously aware of then we are unlikely to be able to assist due to the demands on our Newsdesk.
• We reserve the right to proactively issue material to media beyond conviction or sentencing dates if it aligns with a wider proactive piece of work.

We will only provide details of previous convictions for an individual if that conviction happened in the last three months, has been presented to a court as part of a current matter, or our assessment is there is wider public interest in doing so. We are not able to respond to speculative queries that name an individual and broadly ask for information about previous criminal matters.

We are unable to expand on comments made by police in public meetings or local authority meetings such as licensing hearings. Instead, reporting should be taken from the meeting itself, or the supporting documentation, as this is covered by the appropriate levels of legal privilege. We will consider points of clarification if required.

We cannot take crime reports via the Newsdesk or pass criminal reports onto operational teams. We ask that any crimes are reported via the usual way – through 999 (in an emergency), 101 or online. 

• The Newsdesk does not hold the Met’s statistical information, media are able to assess a range of data on our stats and data pages.
• If required information is not available journalists will need to submit a Freedom of Information request.

• Surviving witnesses of a crime will not be identified by the Met, even if this information was provided in court.
• Where a victim or family member is willing to speak to the media, we will help facilitate this – either via a written statement or by interviews with the press. Requests to speak to victims or family members should be sent to our Newsdesk.

If a victim or family member declines to engage with the media, we ask media to respect these wishes.

• We may issue appeals to trace people who are wanted on bail or warrant or in connection with a criminal matter.
• These will be issued proactively when there is a clear and legitimate policing purpose.
• Updates will be given when an appeal is no longer needed, so that the details and related images can be removed from relevant channels for legal purposes.