Sir Mark Rowley: Met Police will attend all London burglary reports

Sir Mark Rowley recently returned to the Met, where he was in charge of counter-terrorism policing during the 2010s

The Metropolitan Police will "get back" to attending all reports of burglary in London, the new commissioner has said.

Sir Mark Rowley said the crime was "too serious an intrusion" not to.

Speaking to the BBC, he said it was unacceptable the proportion of reported burglaries attended by an officer from the force had fallen to 50%.

He also said he would root out "racists and misogynists" within the Met as part of plans to rebuild public trust following a series of recent scandals.

Among those, an off-duty police officer raped and murdered Sarah Everard, while two others photographed the bodies of murdered sisters Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman.

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There has also been outrage over racist, sexist and homophobic messages shared by a group of officers based at Charing Cross police station between 2016 and 2018, questions raised over the force's approach to tackling corruption and its use of stop and search, as well as ongoing investigations into deaths following police contact, including that of Chris Kaba, who was shot by an officer.

In June, the Met was placed into a form of special measures by the police watchdog over the way it carries out its basic functions, for neglecting to identify repeat victims, and its delays in answering 999 calls.

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Speaking to the BBC earlier, Sir Mark said he wanted to be able to show the public that progress had been made in key areas within 100 days, and to bring the force out of a form of special measures within 12 to 18 months.

The Met faced criticism for how it policed the Sarah Everard vigil

Part of that was a focus on burglaries.

"We're going to get back to the scene of every burglary in the home," he said, adding that the force had the resources to fulfil that pledge.

"We're never going to turn up to every single crime, and the public understand that, but something as severe as burglary needs a proper policing response. It's too serious an intrusion not to have somebody turn up," he said.

"We recently got as low as 50% on that, and that's not acceptable.

"So that's a first step in terms of getting more reliable, alongside putting more officers in communities, which people will see over the next year or so."

• Police 'may not attend' burglaries

Burglaries in London

• For the year ending March 2022, Home Office data shows the Met recorded burglaries at a rate of six per 1,000 people, the fifth highest across England and Wales. Greater Manchester had the highest rate of 8.1 per 1,000 people

• Across all of England and Wales, the rate was 4.5 per 1,000 people

• Home Office data shows of the 53,965 burglary offences recorded by the Met in those 12 months, only 4% have resulted in a charge of summons; while 66% were completed with no suspect identified

• This is similar to rates across England and Wales

Source: Home Office

Sir Mark also said the force needed "to be ruthless in rooting out those who are corrupting the integrity of the organisation; the racists, the misogynists".

"Of course the organisation hasn't deliberately supported them, but unless leadership, culture, systems, technology, resources are all lined up to do it, then a wish doesn't become a reality and it hasn't been a reality."

He added: "Everyone deserves a chance for an honest mistake but we can all see the difference between an honest mistake and toxic and corrupting behaviour."

Analysis

BBC London home affairs correspondent Sonja Jessup

A police service placed in special measures, public trust shaken by a series of scandals - perhaps no surprise, then, that Sir Mark Rowley told the BBC he has had more than one person question his sanity for wanting to take on the job as new commissioner.

He has accepted there is a huge amount to do: from getting the basics of policing right - with promises we will see more officers on London's streets and a response to every burglary - to rooting out corrupt officers.

But there is still not much detail yet on how he will do this, how whistleblowers will be supported and whether he will be given the extra powers he has called for to enable him to have the final say and get rid of corrupt officers.

Sir Mark has indicated he's keen to hear from Londoners who feel let down by the Met, and listen to what he calls "constructive anger" to help the force to change. Those won't be easy conversations.

Will it be enough to restore public trust? These are big promises from a commissioner who claims he is on a personal mission for change.

The detail of how - and when - we will see that change is not yet clear.

The commissioner said the force had let the public down as well as people within the organisation, the "good majority who come to work and do amazing things on behalf of the public day in and day out, and have been let down by their colleagues who have not been robustly dealt with, and let down by not being set up properly to succeed with their job. That's what I'm trying to deal with".

Sir Mark, who says the Met is also reviewing its recruiting and vetting approaches, added: "I want to speak to the people who are angry but constructive because they want policing to succeed.

"I don't want to talk to people who are more interested in their own position or politics, I want to talk to the people who really care about policing.

"I don't care how angry they are, I want to talk to them if they want to help me fix it."

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