The Metropolitan Police is using tactics used against terrorists to identify the worst predators targeting women in London.
Using the Cambridge Crime Harm Index, the force has begun assessing the 35,000 offenders reported each year to rank the top 100 who pose the highest risk to the public.
The tactic forms part of the force’s “absolute determination” to tackle violence against women and girls as the force attempts to rebuild its damaged reputation, it said.
Speaking of their new matrix, deputy commissioner Lynne Owens said: “It takes information from victims where they have named individuals who have committed offences against them.
“The team stacks that data based on the seriousness of the crime, the potential consequences for the victim and that leaves us a stack of offenders. We are going to tackle the first 100 of those. Why 100? You have to start somewhere.”
Within the current top 100, police have identified 445 offences and 201 victims, with two offenders suspected of having 15 victims each.
Using the intelligence, investigators hope to use all covert and overt tactics at their disposal to apprehend the worst offenders.
“It’s taking an organised crime and terrorism approach to male predatory violence. The reason we haven’t got there before is because the numbers were too big to do it manually,” Met Police commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said.
Plans are also in place to recruit a further 565 officers to tackle violence against women, following Baroness Casey’s damaging report which revealed crucial mistakes made by the overstretched department.
Commissioned in the wake of Sarah Everard’s murder by a serving officer, the review laid bare in more than 300 pages a number of grave concerns about the Met’s culture and standards.
Those investigating domestic abuse were found to have “unmanageable caseloads”, while crucial evidence in sexual offence and rape cases were kept in “over-stuffed, dilapidated or broken fridges”. One officer detailed how an entire freezer full of evidence had to be “destroyed” after breaking down during last year’s heatwave.
Referring to a number of recent scandals to hit the Met, the police chief stated that work was ongoing to implement the recommendations made in the report.
Sir Mark, who previously said there were hundreds of officers in the Met who should have been kicked off the force, said bosses are “sacking and suspending more officers than ever before”.
He added: “I’ve got a minority of my people I need to sort out, and we’re doing that as rapidly and as quickly as we can do.”
Stressing for victims of male violence to come forward, deputy commissioner Owens said: “We are determined to do well in this area. We don’t think we are seeing a reduction, over the last three months there has been just under 52,000 offences reported against women and girls and that’s compared to just under 48,000 in the previous three months.
“That’s an 8 per cent increase so we think we see people coming forward, but we’re concerned it’s an even bigger increase but a percentage isn’t being reported.”
Over the last 12 months, the Met Police have charged more than 500 cases of rape and serious sexual offences compared to the previous year. Homicide rates have also been lowered compared to pre-pandemic levels while the backlog of online child sexual abuse cases has been cleared.
Setting out their plan ‘A New Met for London’, Sir Mark Rowley laid out three priorities for reform which consisted of community crime-fighting, culture change and fixing foundations.
Plans to overhaul the force with a £366 million two-year scheme are being launched with visits to every borough in the English capital, starting in Peckham on Monday.
