Fleet used by the Metropolitan Police , the Met operates and maintains a fleet of around 5,200 vehicles. The fleet comprises numerous vehicles, including: • Incident response vehicles (IRV): attached to the various Basic Command Units (BCU) of the Metropolitan Police area, used for frontline policing duties such as patrol and emergency response. • Q-cars: covert unmarked vehicles, belonging to a variety of departments. • Armed response vehicle (ARV): Transports
authorised firearms officers trained to use firearms to deal with incidents involving deadly weapons. • Traffic units: respond to traffic accidents on major roads, enforce traffic laws and encourage road safety. • Motorcycles: utilised by the
Roads and Transport Policing Command and
Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection for more agile patrol and response. • Scrambler bikes: used by Operation Venice officers to combat moped gangs. • Collision investigation units (CIU): respond to and appropriately investigate all major road traffic collisions. • Protected carriers: used for public order duties. • Personnel carriers: used to transport numerous officers on patrol and to incidents, as well as non-violent public order situations. • Station vans: used to transport both officers and suspects in a cage in the rear of the van. • Commercial vehicle units: used to respond to incidents involving commercial vehicles. • CBRN units: used to mitigate chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear incidents. These are identified by a large number of equipment lockers on newer vans and a large array of detecting equipment on the top of older vans. • Control units: used for incident command and control purposes. • Armoured multi-role vehicles: used for public order duties, airport and counter-terrorism duties, or as required. • General purpose vehicles: used for general support and transportation duties of officers or equipment. • Training vehicles: used to train police drivers. • Miscellaneous vehicles: such as horseboxes and trailers. • The
Metropolitan Police Historic Vehicle Collection The majority of vehicles have a service life of three to five years; the Met replaces or upgrades between 800 and 1,000 vehicles each year. Vehicles were initially maintained and repaired on contract by
Babcock International; from November 2023, the contract for 3,700 of the Met's 5,200 vehicles was undertaken by Rivus Fleet Solutions for a ten-year period. Rivus fell into
administration on 21 June 2024, with a deal being agreed by the Metropolitan Police to buy back its maintenance operations, saving 165 jobs. traffic car in the Metropolitan Police's '
jam sandwich' livery first introduced in 1978By 2012, the Met was marking all new marked vehicles with
Battenburg markings, a highly reflective material on the side of the vehicles, chequered blue and yellow green for the police, and in other colours for other services. The old livery was an orange stripe through the vehicle, with the force's logo, known colloquially as the "
jam sandwich", which was first introduced in 1978 with the delivery of high-performance
Rover SD1 traffic cars. Originally, marked vehicles were finished in base white paint; this was changed to silver from 2002 to help improve a vehicle's resale value when it was retired from police use. The
National Police Air Service provides helicopter support to the Met. A
marine policing unit operates 22 vessels from its base in
Wapping.
Budget Funding for the Metropolitan Police has been cut owing to
austerity. Changes in the way the government pays for police pensions will lead to further cuts. Its expenditure for single years, not adjusted for inflation, has been: Due to large
pro-Palestinian demonstrations in London in the aftermath of the
October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, the Metropolitan Police reported significant policing costs and operational demands. By June 2024, the cost of policing Palestine-related protests had risen to nearly £43 million and required almost 52,000 Met officers’ shifts. A senior Met officer stated that policing the protests reduced capacity for other policing work, such as counter-terrorism and neighbourhood policing. The
Special Escort Group (SEG) is responsible for escorting the Royal Family, Prime Minister and other ministers, ambassadors and visiting heads of state, and occasionally prisoner transport. •
Aviation Policing Command – Responsible for providing policing (with the majority being armed officers) at
Heathrow Airport and
London City Airport. •
Flying Squad – A unit that investigates and intercepts armed robberies. The name comes from the fact its members travelled across divisional and borough boundaries. •
Trident Gang Crime Command – Investigates and works to prevent
gang crime. •
Roads and Transport Policing Command – Provides policing for the transport network in London, comprising numerous divisions: the Traffic Division, patrols the road, pursuing fleeing suspects and enforcing speed, safety, and drink driving; the Road Crime Team focuses on dangerous drivers, priority roads, uninsured vehicles and 'fatal four' offences; the Safer Transport Team (STT) provide a policing presence on
Transport for London's buses and investigates most crimes committed on them. •
Specialist Firearms Command – (MO19) Responsible for providing armed response and support across the whole of London with Authorised Firearms Officers (AFO) travelling in ARVs (Armed Response Vehicles) responding to calls involving firearms and weapons. MO19 employs a number of CTSFOs (Counter Terrorist Specialist Firearms Officers), who have additional training, specifically at lengths in order to combat terrorism. •
Dog Support Unit – (DSU) Provides highly trained dogs and police handlers, under MO7 Taskforce. They are trained to detect drugs and firearms, respond to searches, missing people, and fleeing suspects. Bomb-detection dogs are also used for specific duties. As of 2015 the unit had around 250
police dogs. •
Marine Policing Unit – (MPU) Provides policing on the waterways of London, responding to situations in the
River Thames and tracking and stopping illegal vessels entering and exiting London. •
Mounted Branch – Provides policing on horseback in London, under MO7 Taskforce. One of its duties is escorting the
Royal Guard down
The Mall, into and out of
Buckingham Palace every morning from April to July, then occasionally through the remainder of the year. It also provides public order support and is commonly called to police football matches in the event of any unrest. All officers are trained in public order tactics on horseback. As of 2010, the Branch had 120
police horses. •
Police Support Unit (PSU) – Trained to deal with a variety of public order situations outside the remit or capability of regular divisional officers. These are often regular Emergency Response and Patrol Team Carriers, as such of both Borough Support Units (BSU) and Public Order Borough Support Units (POBSU), the latter of which carrying officers often trained in Public Order Level 2 (POL2) •
Territorial Support Group (TSG) – Highly trained officers, specialised in public order and large-scale riots responding around London in marked Public Order Carriers (POC) with 6 constables and a sergeant in each POC. TSG officers are specifically trained in Public Order Level 1 (POL1), handling the most violent of riots or protests. They also hold Method of Entry (MOE) qualifications as an aid to local response officers. They aim to secure the capital against terrorism, respond to any disorder in London, and reduce priority crime through borough support. They respond in highly protective uniform during riots or large disorder, protecting themselves from any thrown objects or hazards. • Violent Crime Task Force (VCTF) – Formed in April 2018, the VCTF is a pan-London proactive response team to knife and serious violent crime, made up of 300 ring-fenced and dedicated police officers who solely focus on violent crime, weapon-enabled crime and serious criminality. This, however, has since been disbanded and created into both Borough Based Violence Suppression Units (VSU) and MO7 Taskforce Surge Team. (TST) • Operation Venice – Formed in 2017 to deal with record-breaking
moped crime in London, but also tackles different types of robbery trends; the Scorpion Team consists of highly skilled drivers and riders who were given a green light to instigate tactical contact against moped and motorbikes involved in criminality. This, however, has since been disbanded and replaced with the likes of Interceptor and Surge teams under MO7 Taskforce
Stations In addition to the headquarters at New Scotland Yard, there are many
police stations in London. These range from large borough headquarters staffed around the clock every day to smaller stations, which may be open to the public only during normal business hours, or on certain days of the week. In 2017, there were 73 working front counters open to the public in London. Most police stations can easily be identified from one or more blue lamps located outside the entrance, which were introduced in 1861. The oldest Metropolitan police station, which opened in
Bow Street in 1881, closed in 1992 and the adjoining
Bow Street Magistrates' Court heard its last case on 14 July 2006. One of the oldest operational police stations in London is in
Wapping, which opened in 1908. It is the headquarters of the
marine policing unit (formerly known as Thames Division), which is responsible for policing the
River Thames. It also houses a mortuary and the River Police Museum.
Paddington Green Police Station, which is no longer operational, received much publicity for its housing of terrorism suspects in an underground complex prior to its closure in 2017. In 2004, there was a call from the
Institute for Public Policy Research for more imaginative planning of police stations to aid in improving relations between police forces and the wider community. ==Statistics==