'Little hope of Met meeting recruitment target'
DAVID TAYLORSCOTLAND YARD'S recruitment crisis shows little sign of being resolved in the next three years, a gloomy analysis by Her Majesty's Inspector of Constabulary has concluded.
The study of the Met says that with officers leaving the force at a projected rate of nearly five a day, the force will need to recruit 2,500 a year to stay on course to hit the target of 28,000 officers by April 2004.
The Met has never previously achieved such levels of recruitment, the report says, adding: "The target looks even more daunting given that every 100 expressions of interest lead to 14 applications, but only four recruits."
The failure rate at the Hendon training college is also compounding the problem - nearly 10per cent of recruits drop out or fail training there, compared to only 1.3 per cent in provincial forces.
On a more positive note, the report says advertising campaigns, pay rises and free travel for London police officers have seen applications hit their highest levels for years. But the force needs to do more to find out why so many officers are leaving, the report says.
It is also critical of the way the Met deploys its staff, noting that there is a lack of guidance for commanders on how to work out where to allocate resources.
At a time when the police in London have seen calls on their time rise by more than one million in two years to 14.8 million calls, the Met still relies too heavily on "historic patterns" when using staff, the report says.
As an example, it cites the case of a team of 13 officers - made up of an inspector, two sergeants and 10 constables - who were tasked to reduce street crime in a borough where the problem was minimal.
All Met officers are praised for their spirit and fortitude and the force is portrayed as rising to the challenge of extra demands and scare resources.
But the report notes: "It was with considerable disappointment that Her Majesty's Inspector found evidence of poor resource allocation methods and a reliance on doubtful historical patterns to deploy staff, that too often failed to match need."
Copyright 2001
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