Met Police to use counter-terror tactics to catch 100 worst predators against women
BRITAIN’s biggest police force is using new counter-terror tactics with a matrix to target the 100 worst suspects for sex and violent crimes against women and girls.
The chart of named suspects based on statements from victims and intelligence held on files has been developed by the Met Police grading them by the danger they pose.
Targets will then be pro-actively investigated to bring them to justice for crimes against females.
The innovative scheme’s first suspect was arrested and charged last week with assaults, strangulation and robbery.
Two men on the current shifting stack of 100 suspects are each believed to be responsible for 15 crimes against women and girls.
Crimes being investigated include rape, attempted murder, violent assaults and coercive control.
The new tactic mirrors methods used by MI5 and counter-terror cops of targeting a changing pool of suspects considered to present the gravest risk at that time.
Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said: “It’s taking the organised crime or terrorism approach to male predatory violence.
“If we go after them proactively, build a case against them, get them off the streets, that protects women and children.”
Sir Mark said 35,000 suspects had been named over the last year for crime of violence against women and girls in the capital London.
He said that because of the large volume of suspects it was important to try and target the worst offenders “before they can commit other offences”.
Met deputy commissioner Dame Lynne Owens said the current stack of suspects has been assembled from crime reports on 445 offences involving 201 victims.
Many of the suspects have been named over domestic crimes involving sex and violence while others are alleged predators striking in public places.
Dame Lynne said: “We are using covert and overt facilities available to investigate and prove their offences and take them to court.”
The Met’s intelligence section is using the Cambridge Crime Harm Index to help them draw up the chart of the 100 most dangerous suspects.
Commander Ben Russell said local officers and specialist units would be involved in targeting the named offenders “in a very similar way we are working with terrorism”.
He added: “It is about bringing the whole organisation on board in a way we have never worked before.”
The new approach follows a series of scandals faced by the Met over its own officers and a scathing report from Baroness Casey earlier this year which branded the force institutionally racist, misogynistic and homophobic.
Another 565 people are being drafted into to investigate domestic abuse, sex offences and child exploitation.
It is part of a £366million project dubbed “A New Met for London” which aims to boost neighbourhood policing and win back public trust.
Sir Mark unveiled details of the project yesterday as he promised more officers on the beat and front counters for the public to report crime following a mass closure of stations.
A further 500 PCSO’s are being recruited into the Met and Sir Mark stressed it was “not acceptable” that some community officers were currently not within walking distance of their patch.
In addition, 240 experienced officers out of the Met’s total workforce of about 34,000 will be moved from central to local teams.
During austerity cuts from 2010, which led to the loss of more than 20,000 officers nationwide, the Met merged borough teams into larger command structures.
Dame Lynne said: “I think there was a risk in making those choices.
“We did step away from the local and we recognise the need to have more of a geographical focus.”
It was revealed yesterday that 162 sexual assaults were reported in police stations in just a year, with both station staff and visitors being victims of alleged attacks.
It comes after a Met cop was found guilty of sexually assaulting a woman in the sea on his own stag do.
Sergeant Laurence Knight attacked the victim in Brighton as she begged: “You’re getting married in two weeks.”
And earlier this year another twisted cop was revealed as one of the UK’s worst serial rapists after he admitted 49 sex offences.
David Carrick tortured and abused his victims in a 17-year reign of terror by controlling what they ate and who they spoke to.