Met police response times slammed by Assembly Member as ‘nowhere close’ to fast enough

By Noah Vickers, Local Democracy Reporter

The average time taken by the Met Police to arrive on the scene of incidents like burglaries and road-traffic collisions has been slammed by a City Hall politician as “nowhere close” to fast enough.

Caroline Pidgeon, a Liberal Democrat on the London Assembly, said it was “shocking” that the average police response time to calls of significant importance across the capital in recent months was more than double the target time of one hour.

Statistics sourced by Ms Pidgeon via a written question to Mayor Sadiq Khan show that in all 12 of the Met’s Basic Command Units, the average response time from December through to February to so-called S-grade calls was two hours and two minutes.

S-grade calls, otherwise known as low urgency calls, are where there is a “degree of importance or urgency associated with the initial police action, but an emergency response is not required”. Examples include road traffic collisions, hate crimes, anti-social behaviour and burglaries.

Although the London-wide average time to respond to such calls was not within the one hour target, 62.5 per cent of calls in the winter period were still responded to within the target.

In the South West unit which covers Kingston, Merton, Richmond, and Wandsworth, the average response time for S-Grade calls during the whole three-month period was more than two hours.

Ms Pidgeon said the figures were “really quite shocking and many Londoners will find them deeply unsettling”.

She added: “[The data] shows us that not only are target times being missed, but in the vast majority of boroughs they are nowhere close to being hit.

“It is quite clear that we need a return to proper community policing with more borough-based officers and response teams to help Londoners when they need them most.”

A Met spokeswoman said: “From 1 December 2022 to 28 February 2023 the Met received 915,842 calls. Londoners rightly expect us to be there for them when they need us and we recognise the importance of being able to respond to the most serious emergencies as effectively as possible.

“Our officers are regularly the first emergency service workers at the scene of a stabbing or a serious collision and they are trained to provide first aid, as well as to keep the public safe.

“We know this is an important area for us and where we have identified challenges in some policing areas, we have worked hard to ensure we are doing all we can to prioritise the most urgent calls for service.”

The Mayor’s office said Mr Khan was focused on working with the Met to improve the situation.

A spokesman for Mr Khan said: “The vast majority of emergency calls to police in London are responded to within national target times, but more needs to be done and the Mayor is committed to working with [Met Commissioner] Sir Mark Rowley to ensure police can be there for Londoners quickly when they need them most.”

Pictured top: Caroline Pidgeon AM (Picture: Liberal Democrats)