I’ve been sent copy of the Q&A on how this will work. It seems to have originated from the MOPC so has a slight ‘all is rosy’ tone but it’s helpful to have. There’s an older Q&A on the old MPA’s website.
What is the MOPC?
The Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPC) was set up on 16 January 2012 in response to the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act (2011), which reforms the accountability of police services and replaces police authorities across England and Wales with elected individuals.
How is the MOPC different to the MPA?
In London we already had a directly elected individual, the Mayor, so this is not such a fundamental shift for Londoners. The Mayor and Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime are now directly accountable for the (i) overall performance of the Met (ii) setting its strategic direction (iii) allocating resources. The Assembly will monitor and scrutinise the work of the MOPC through the work of its Police and Crime Committee (PCC).
How will the MOPC impact on day to day policing in London?
The Mayor won on a policing mandate – many of the anticipated elements of the Act are already in place in London. During the period that the Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime was Chair of the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA), policing in London became more efficient, with greater savings and more effective crime fighting, with crime falling.
What impact will it have on policing in London?
The Mayor and the Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime are now directly accountable to the public for policing performance in the capital. The Assembly’s role has been clarified to scrutinise the way in which the Mayor and Deputy Mayor exercise their executive oversight of policing through the work of the newly established Police and Crime Committee (PCC).
What are the priorities of the MOPC?
The Mayor of London Boris Johnson is responsible for setting London’s policing priorities. He and Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime, Kit Malthouse, will hold the Met commissioner to account and ensure the Police target crimes that concern Londoners including:
Strengthening the Met’s response to serious youth violence including knife crime;
Ensuring London has enough frontline police officers on the streets;
Targeting robbery, burglary and drug dealing in every borough;
Getting tough on gangs and tackling re-offending rates
What will be the role of the Commissioner of the Metropolis?
The Commissioner will remain in charge of operational policing. The Mayor and Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime will set the direction; they will not micro-manage.
Will an advisory board be set up to work with the MOPC to meet in public in order to maintain the transparency that MPA proceedings have
The Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011 allows this to happen if the Mayor so chooses. People with a wide range of backgrounds would be asked to serve on the advisory board.
What will the MOPC mean for the funding of community and police engagement?
The MOPC retains the same duty to consult communities on policing in London, including (i) obtaining the views of people in the area, with a new responsibility to include victims of crime, about matters concerning their policing and to obtain their cooperation with police in preventing crime, (ii) consulting on the Police and Crime Plan and proposals for expenditure and (iii) publishing specified information to enable residents to assess the performance of the MOPC in exercising its functions, and the performance of the Metropolitan Police Commissioner in exercising the chief officer’s functions.
Borough engagement continues to be necessary under the MOPC, but the planned savings against the CPEG budget still have to be made. The MPA borough team transferred into the MOPC and continues to support the ongoing CPEG improvement and development work in these difficult times. The MPA considered the 2012/13 CPEG budget in December 2011, and it was agreed that the overall CPEG budget for 2012/13 will be £1m.
How to get involved:
The MOPC has a statutory role to consult Londoners in matters of crime, policing and safety. Londoners from all the communities across the 32 boroughs are encouraged to engage with the MOPC in making London safer. There are three ways to engage with the MOPC:
CSBs – Community Safety Boards provide the structure to enable local people to regularly consult with their local police, the police authority, key stakeholders in crime and disorder reduction (such as the local authority and probation service), CSBs are intended to be representative of the local population.
CMGs – Stop & Search Community Monitoring Groups ,The use of stop and search powers by the MPS is subject to public scrutiny. This scrutiny is undertaken by borough based Community Monitoring Groups (CMGs) and provides local communities with the means to communicate their experiences of stop and search to their local police and to review the use of stop and search and stop and account powers in their boroughs.
Independent Custody Visitors – ICVs are ordinary members of the local community. Working as part of a local panel they help the MOPC, which oversees custody visiting in London, to ensure that detainees are treated appropriately.
To take part in any of these groups please contact the MOPC Borough Information & Engagement team by email at BIEU@mopc.police.uk or by post MOPC, 10 Dean Farrar Street, London SW1H 0NY
Kings Cross Environment 
