How London's Mayor will police the Met

JOHN STEVENS faces a number of tough challenges as the new Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, but he will face one none of his predecessors had to contend with: the challenge when the Mayor of London and Assembly are elected on 4 May.

At present, the commissioner has only one boss, Home Secretary Jack Straw.

Next year the Met will become account-able to London and the commissioner will have two further bosses in the shape of the Mayor and his Metropolitan Police Authority.

As Mayor Rudi Guiliani has shown in New York, tackling crime is a vote winner and no mayor worth his or her salt will ignore this issue, especially when high-profile crimes occur. The Mayor of London is likely to demand weekly or monthly crime statistics, a far cry from the annual statistics published months after the yearend.

It is possible to imagine the Mayor holding press conferences to discuss these statistics with the commissioner out in the open, viewed by all.

Leading candidates Ken Livingstone, Steven Norris, Trevor Phillips and Jeffrey Archer are itching to exert their influence on how London's police force is directed. If the Yard is concentrating its resources on computer fraud and the Mayor and Assembly members are constantly harangued by headlines and constituency supporters about local break-ins, car crime and muggings, it will be inconceivable that the commissioner will not be advised where to direct his resources.

Trevor Phillips, for instance, would turn the force upside-down. He believes the Yard has all the hi-tech equipment but hasn't learned how to play with the toys; it needs new hi-tech minds to go with it, in his view.

The other contenders are equally determined to make their mark on policing the capital.

The Yard's other boss will be the chairman of the Metropolitan Police Authority, the new body being created to provide greater democratic accountability to London. This could well be the Deputy Mayor, chosen from the ranks of the 25 Greater London Assembly members. If this person is an effective operator and, for the sake of argument, is from one of London's ethnic communities, then Stevens will feel the pressure of greater political and ethnic accountability.

The MPA will have up to 23 members, appointed through a bewildering array of complex schedules set out in the detail of the Greater London Authority Bill, currently passing through the House of Lords. Twelve of the members will come from the Greater London Assembly and one of these will be the Deputy Mayor. One individual will be appointed exclusively by the Home Secretary - as near to a stooge as possible.

Four will be magistrates. The remaining six will be termed "independent members" and will be selected by the 17 already appointed.

Clear? Just about. Fair? Well not according to London's local authorities.

It is they who have campaigned longest and hardest for the Met to come under democratic control and yet they are being excluded from the MPA directly, although it is possible for a few local authority councillors to be appointed as independent members. If they are not, it is perfectly feasible to see London's local authorities set up their own committee to oversee the MPA and Metropolitan police. Big brother watching big brother watching big brother.

And if they don't do that, the boroughs may encourage the Assembly to set up a committee to "scrutinise" the MPA. This is a bizarre thought given the fact that 12 of the Assembly members will be serving on the MPA anyhow, but perfectly possible if the other 13 members of the Assembly feel disgruntled enough.

When it comes to appointments and money, the MPA is limited. It will not appoint the commissioner. This important decision will still rest with the Home Secretary, "advised" by the Mayor. The Bill states: "Before recommending to Her Majesty that she appoint a person as Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis, the Secretary of State shall have regard to any recommendations made to him by the MPA and any representations made to him by the Mayor of London."

The Home Secretary could of course ignore the views of the Mayor and democratically elected representatives, but this is unlikely.

The first Mayor and MPA may not even have the chance to put forward representations or recommendations.

John Stevens's contract is for five years.

His appointment runs to 1 January 2005, eight months after the election for the second Mayor and Assembly. This means that, like it or not, the first Mayor and MPA will have to live with a commissioner appointed before they took office throughout their first term, and possibly the second.

When it comes to money, although the Mayor, Assembly and MPA will set the budget for the Metropolitan police, the Home Secretary has, enshrined in the Bill, a "reserve power". This means that he can overrule the GLA and set a minimum budget for the force if the Mayor tries to switch money away from the Met to other priorities.

Robert Gordon Clark is managing director of London Communications Agency and formerly deputy chief executive of London First

Copyright 1999
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