The Met must support burglary victims properly
Caroline spoke to BBC Radio London about the Metropolitan Police's lack of action on burglaries.
Caroline said:
Policing articles
The Met needs to go through a rigorous cleanup process
Responding to Met Commissioner Mark Rowley’s letter on wrongdoing by police officers, Liberal Democrat Assembly Member and Police and Crime Spokesperson Caroline Pidgeon AM said:
"It is clear that the problems faced by the Met are as bad as many of us feared.
“Cleaning up the organisation is going to be incredibly resource intensive and take many months and years.
Met is failing to meet 999 response targets all across London
Information uncovered by the London Liberal Democrats has shown that not one of the Met’s Basic Command Units (BCUs) in London met the target response time for S-grade 999 calls – such as road traffic collisions, hate crimes, anti-social behaviour and burglaries – in the past three months.
The target response time for S-grade calls is 60 minutes. But between December 2022 and February 2023, not a single Basic Command Unit had an average response time of below 1 hour 15 minutes, with the average response time being 2 hours 2 minutes
Keeping up the scrutiny on police station closures
In the London Assembly Police and Crime Committee, Caroline Pidgeon therefore asked the Met Commissioner to commit to stopping the closure of police stations – which are a core part of our frontline policing system and have been decimated.
Huge change is needed in the Metropolitan Police
Responding to Caroline Pidgeon's questions in the London Assembly Police and Crime Committee, Baroness Casey admitted she would expect the numbers of officers dismissed for misconduct to be "in the several hundreds".
Caroline said:
The Casey Review on the Met is appalling to read
Responding to the publication of Baroness Casey's review of the Metropolitan Police, which highlights institutional racism, sexism and homophobia, Caroline Pidgeon said:
This report is deeply upsetting and appalling to read.
The shocking details make it absolutely clear - the Met has failed women and failed Londoners. Beyond the institutional misogyny, the reports of deep-rooted racism and homophobia show little has changed in the Met since the 1999 Macpherson Report.
Assessing the Met's draft turnaround plan
Caroline Pidgeon has written to the new Metropolitan Police Commissioner giving the Liberal Democrats' response to the Met's draft turnaround plan.
Caroline wrote:
Police response times are simply not good enough
Caroline's questions to the Mayor on the Metropolitan Police's response times for "lower urgency" 999 calls have shown that Londoners wait on average 3 hours, when the police should respond within 60 minutes – and in some boroughs, the wait is a lot longer.
Commissioner Rowley needs expert help to change the Met from top to bottom
As Mark Rowley was named as the Metropolitan Police's new Commissioner, Caroline Pidgeon said:
"I wish Mark Rowley well. London needs him to be a successful Commissioner, at a time when confidence in the Met is at a record low and it's just gone into special measures.
"There is no doubt that the scale of the challenge is immense, but the cultural and organisational failings in the Met cannot be solved by a change at the top alone.
Next Met Commissioner cannot be a stitch-up
Reacting to the Metropolitan Police being placed under special measures, Caroline Pidgeon, Liberal Democrat London Assembly Member and member of the London Assembly Police and Crime Committee said: