The Met police commissioner Sir Mark Rowley pledged ‘more trust, less crime, higher standards’ as part of a reputation rebuilding effort, reports Josh Mellor, Local Democracy Reporter

Sir Mark Rowley speaks at The Great Hall in Leyton yesterday where Walthamstow MP Stella Creasy was in attendance, Credit: LDRS

Metropolitan Police boss Sir Mark Rowley hopes to increase Waltham Forest residents’ trust in his force through better community policing.

As part of a London-wide “community conversation” and the launch of his two-year New Met for London plan the Met police commissioner organised a meeting at The Great Hall, Leyton.

The meeting was part of the force’s work to rebuild its reputation after a series of scandals and the Baroness Casey review which found the force was racist, misogynist and homophobic.

Sir Mark summarised his plan as “more trust, less crime, higher standards”.

He said: “We get the fact that we haven’t been good enough at community policing, in our culture and standards, on discrimination and we have a plan to tackle that step-by-step.”

The commissioner added that a “critical” part of rebuilding trust is through better community policing and pledged to increase resources in neighbourhood teams, which are often staffed by trainee officers.

The majority of attendees of the meeting appeared to be uniformed police officers, local councillors, council staff, youth groups and residents involved in the borough’s Safer Neighbourhood Ward Panels.

A few residents told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) they came to the meeting with concerns about specific issues such as anti-social behaviour or theft outside their homes.

Addressing Sir Mark, Walthamstow MP Stella Creasy – the only one of the borough’s three MPs to attend – questioned whether the meeting was genuinely engaging with the community.

She said: “We need to have a better way of holding you accountable, with the greatest will in the world I don’t think that’s happening tonight.”

Stella pointed out that the Met’s new promise of launching “citizens’ assemblies” for residents to discuss policing locally would be the sixth new “body” created to hold the police accountable.

Lower-ranking local officers already attend public Stop and Search scrutiny meetings at the Town Hall and a new local panel of residents has been set up to review videos of police encounters that appear on social media.

It remains unclear what the citizens’ assemblies will be or when they will meet, although Waltham Forest and Newham’s commander, Detective Chief Inspector Simon Crick, who took over last July, said stakeholders such as the council are “being briefed”.

Sir Mark did not signal any major changes to the use of stop and search locally, which statistics have consistently shown to disproportionately target younger black men, despite there being a similar rate of finding drugs or weapons for all ethnicities.

Speaking to the LDRS during the event, members of local peer engagement group Street Base said some young people report feeling harassed by stop and search tactics.

Tori said at a recent training event where Street Base members met with police officers they felt some were “defensive” when faced with concerns about the tactics.

She added: “They were just in defensive mode straight away, if you’re defensive like that how do you expect things to change?”

Also at the meeting was a new superintendent in Waltham Forest, Lora John, who will oversee neighbourhood policing below DCI Crick, who also oversees Newham.

Sir Mark also promised police on neighbourhood teams will be in place for “at least two years” before being reassigned to other parts of the force.

He said: “Do you know your local police in your ward and do you have confidence that they are working on the right issues and doing the right things to try and make a difference?”

“I’m trying to make sure officers are in community policing for at least two years before being reassigned.”

Other key pledges in the Met’s improvement plan include each borough having “at least one” 24/7 front desk.

Police stations in Leyton and Walthamstow were closed about ten years ago.

The police still operate in the borough from Chingford police station, a patrol base in Uplands industrial estate on Blackhorse Lane and a custody suite in Leyton.

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