When the history books reflect on the commissionership of the Metropolitan Police Chief Sir Mark Rowley, there is a risk – with less than two years of his five-year term to go – that the headline will be ‘an opportunity wasted’. 

Appointed in the midst of too many crises to recount, late 2022 was the chance for the force’s new leadership team to turn the Met into a genuinely effective crime-fighting machine. But this isn’t what happened. Despite falls in knife crime offences this year compared to last, in the last full financial year the Met recorded far higher rates (per 100,000 of the population) of knife crime compared to other areas: 17.8 per cent higher than the West Midlands, 36.8 per cent higher than Greater Manchester, 44.6 per cent higher than South Yorkshire and 46.9 per cent higher than West Yorkshire. 

Analysis by Policy Exchange shows that the force only solves a tiny fraction of reported theft offences: 1 in 13 shoplifting offences, 1 in 20 robberies and burglaries, 1 in 76 bicycle thefts and 1 in 179 theft person offences such as pickpocketing. The reality is that, when it comes to the force’s core mission of fighting crime – certainly high-volume street crime – the Met’s performance is inadequate.

Rowley has also not always been helped by his political masters

Looking back over the last three years, the seeds of this inadequacy are clear for........

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