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About Us
Met police principles, values and more.
Founded by Sir Robert Peel in 1829, the Metropolitan Police Service is one of the oldest police services in the world. From the beginning, the purpose of the Met has been to serve and protect the people of London by providing a professional police service. Despite the challenges we have faced recently, this remains our purpose.
Today, the Met is made up of more than 46,500 officers and staff and volunteers. With a budget of £4.8 billion it is the UK’s largest police force. The territory served covers 620 square miles and is home to over 9 million people. The Met is seen as a world leader in policing. The ‘Scotland Yard’ brand is known around the world as a symbol of investigation and policing.
Policing our unique city
London is unique. As the largest city in Western Europe, it is home to ‘the world under one roof’. Its ever-changing population is over 9 million and it is one of the most diverse (culturally, ethnically and linguistically) cities in the world. The complexities of policing a city on this scale are huge. A seat of Parliamentary, Royal and Diplomatic power, London is also a focal point for protest and is a high-profile target for terrorist attack as well as being subject to the impact of wider national and international events.
There are over 300 languages spoken in London, and around 40% of the population are from Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities. These numbers are predicted to grow further as the city expands and develops.
As of April 2025, the Met had over 32,800 of the 146,868 police officers in England and Wales – 22% of all police officers. Serving across 32 boroughs, the Met polices more than 15% of the England and Wales population. Additionally, we have 1,440 Police Community Support Officers, 1,114 Met Specials and over 11,366 Police Staff.
Taken together, this creates a unique policing environment. Everyone joining the Met needs the ability to deliver outstanding policing to Londoners and must share our commitment to beating and preventing crime, and protecting our citizens, streets and communities.
The Met is responsible for maintaining the peace and is accountable in law for the exercise of policing powers, and to the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) for the delivery of efficient and effective policing, management of resources and expenditure. At all times the Commissioner and his officers remain operationally independent, in the service of the public.
Our Strategy
With the full support of tens of thousands of officers, staff and volunteers the Met is changing. Over the past two and half years we have begun a transformational path towards our mission of more trust, less crime, high standards. We have made significant progress in delivering on our reform plan – New Met for London. The progress we have made over the last two-and-a-half years would not have been possible without the unwavering passion, sense of duty, courage and hard work of our officers and staff in the face of some incredibly challenging circumstances.
That progress was recognised by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) in their decision to move the Met back to their ‘scan’ monitoring status in January.
We have worked tirelessly to address more than 100 recommendations, several Causes for Concern and improve our service to London:
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We are responding more quickly to emergencies and Londoners get our help when they need it most. Last year our dedicated staff and officers in Met Contact Centre responded to 4,660,891 contacts, of which 2,394,416 were 999 calls, 1,279,552 were 101 calls and 988,923 were digital contacts. 90.1% of 999 calls being answered within 10 seconds in January 2024.
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We have trained 8000 officers in the identification of child exploitation, launched a new Children’s Strategy and significantly increased the number of officers in our child exploitation teams.
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Put hundreds of more officers in our domestic assault and rape and sexual offence teams, doubled the number of charges for rape and sexual offences and tripled the numbers in our nationally recognised Stalking Threat Assessment Centre.
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Rolled out our new neighbourhood policing model and bolstering it with an additional 500 officers and staff. We are working closer than ever with communities to understand their concerns.
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We’ve embedded our new values through our Culture Plan and London Race Action Plan and rolled out face-to-face training for everyone in the Met to help deliver a change in the culture that our people want to see.
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Rooting out officers who do not meet the Met’s high standards by stepping up our proactive work to identify offenders and possible corruption.
The progress we have made to fix our foundations will set us up well for the next stages of our reform. Our people are hugely ambitious for London, and while the next few years will continue to be challenging for the Met we will build of this progress and use it as a springboard for the next iteration of New Met for London.
In order to succeed on this next part of the journey, we need an inspirational senior leader with a relentless eye for delivery and a collaborative approach, to continue to translate the ambitions set out in the New Met for London into reality and drive further significant progress in operational performance to continue to improve our service to Londoners.
Our Structure
We serve London through five operational functions, each headed by an Assistant Commissioner who sits on the Management Board and all reporting into the Deputy Commissioner:
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Frontline Policing leads local policing and specialist investigation across London, responsible for the public facing aspects of ‘more trust and less crime’. Leads the delivery of precise community crime- fighting and London’s strongest ever neighbourhood policing.
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Met Operations and Performance leads the delivery of services that enhance operational effectiveness across the whole Met, using data and intelligence from across the organisation to drive improved outcomes. Leads the pan-Met specialist operational capabilities required to support effective policing across London.
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Trust and Legitimacy leads on the cultural portfolio; diversity and Inclusion; approach to community engagement.
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Professionalism and Culture leads the Met on tackling misconduct and corruption within the organisation and setting, embedding and enforcing professional standards. Holds the organisation to account for creating and maintaining a culture based on Met values, standards and behaviours.
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Specialist Operations continues to deliver counter terrorism and protective services (both in London and nationally).
We have four additional support functions led by Senior Staff Chief Officers, which also sit at Management Board level:
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People & Resources leads the integration of core enabling services to deliver effective organisation-wide capabilities, including Human Resources, Finance, Property Services, Learning & Development, Commercial and Operational Support, as well as Met Business Services.
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Digital, Data & Technology (DDaT) leads the delivery of data and technology services to the public, our front line and support teams across the Met.
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Communications & Engagement provides professional and high-quality communication services to help the Met deliver its vision and strategy. These include media and reputation management, internal communications, change communications, marketing and brand management.
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Strategy & Transformation leads on transformation and strategic planning across the Met, focusing on the delivery of the New Met for London (NMfL) plan, delivering the strategy and projects & programmes underpinning that plan. The group comprises Strategy, Governance, Secretariat, Organisational Design, Business Change and Portfolio management functions – leading the delivery, prioritisation and sequencing of all strategy and transformation work across the force.
Met Management Board, DACs , Directors, Commanders
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Our Principles, Values & the Competency Framework
Your application to become a senior leader in the Met will be assessed against MPS Principles and Values and the requirements of the Deputy Director for Project Delivery role. Level 3 of the Competency and Values Framework is also relevant to all senior leaders within the MPS.
With London communities and our people, we’ve reset our values and guiding principles, to help deliver cultural reform across the Met. We’re reasserting what we want our people to be, how we want them to behave and the culture we want to build. These values and principles will be embedded in our HR processes that develop and assess our people, meaning we’re all judged by how we work.
Our principles guide how we should make decisions to support us in delivering our mission of More Trust, Less Crime and High standards.
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Communities-first: We will prioritise the Londoners we serve in everything we do. We will listen to them and work with them to solve problems.
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Frontline-focused: We will prioritise officers and staff who work directly with the public, so they have what they need to provide the best service to Londoners.
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Inclusive: We will be anti-discriminatory. We will seek to understand diverse perspectives and treat people according to their needs. We will create a workplace where everyone can thrive and is accessible and inclusive to all.
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Collaborative: We recognise policing in London is at its best when the diverse communities we serve help us shape our response and the impact we have. We will take every opportunity to work with partners and our colleagues; to listen, reflect, learn and act.
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Precise: We will make data and insight driven decisions informed by the best available evidence so we focus our efforts on achieving results with the greatest benefit to the public.
Everything we do is underpinned by our values. These define how we behave and serve.
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Integrity: I will always try to do the right thing. I will be fair and consistent in everything I do, being mindful of the impact of my actions. I will actively challenge those whose behaviour falls below public and the Met's expectations.
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Courage: I will show courage by making tough decisions when needed. I will always challenge racist, homophobic, misogynistic and any other discriminatory and inappropriate behaviour. I will show humility.
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Accountable: I will strive to build trust with the public, colleagues, and partners, by being open, honest and taking ownership for what I have done and why. I will admit when I make mistakes, learn from them and improve.
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Respect: I will respect the rights of everyone I meet. I will listen to individual perspectives and needs. I will try my best to understand a diverse range of views and achieve the best possible outcomes for the public.
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Empathy: I will care about communities and colleagues and try to understand their perspectives and experiences, at all times. I will be kind and listen and understand without judgement. I will take time to clarify and explain my decisions.
Competencies are skills, abilities and practical behaviours that contribute to effective job performance. There are six competencies in the CVF:
We are innovative and open-minded
Each competency has three levels, which can be used flexibly to allow for a better fit with frontline and non-frontline policing roles, and at different levels of seniority. The levels are cumulative. This means that those working at higher levels should have built on their behaviours from the preceding levels.
This role will be Level 3: Senior manager/executive.
Please click on each competency [above] for full details.