Organisation of the MPS (London) - Homicide branch pratical working - Police officer career
Hello,
I need informations for the story I am working on and since you have all been so helpful last time …
It's set between 2000 and 2013 in London and one of my MC is working for the Met as a DS then as a DI in the Homicide branch.
The first thing I would like to know is who his superiors are (from him up to the Commissioner) and what exactly their responsibility is. The main problem I am having is that there has been changes in the organisation of the MPS (fusion of the Specialist Crime Directorate and Central Operations in 2012 among others).
So I am looking for informations about the structure of the MPS, more precisely about the units dealing with homicides. I have made a lot of researches on the Internet and I have searched the MPS website extensively along with the ACPO (Association of Chief Police Officers) website and the MPA (Metropolitan Police Authority) one.
I have found organisation charts for the ACPO ranks so that's pretty much sorted but once we get lower things get much more complicated to sort out.
What I have found so far (feel free to correct me) :
The whole MPS is headed by : The MPS Commissioner
Specialist Crime and Operations (SC&O) is headed by : An MPS Assistant Commissioner
Crime Operations is headed by : A Deputy Assistant Commissioner (at the same level there also is the Forensic Service Command Unit (SCD4) which is headed by a Director)
Specialist Crime Investigations is headed by : A Commander
Homicide and Serious Crime Command (SCD1) is headed by : A Detective Chief Superintendent
Here is where things get sketchy.
I know that the part of SCD1 which investigate homicides (and suspicious deaths) is the MIT (Murder/Major Investigation Teams). Could someone clarify exactly how they work ?
What I have got so far is as follow.
Each MIT is headed by a Detective Chief Inspector.
Said DCI report directly to the Detective Chief Superintendent in charge of SCD1.
Each MIT is composed of around 30 members of staff.
They are Detectives (DI, DS, DC). How many of each ?
How many are present at the same time (how many for each shift) ? The night shift is six officers (dropping to three : two DC and one DI) at 2 am. What about the other shifts ? What are the hours (in theory, I know they often works later than that) of those shifts ?
How many investigate each murder ? Do they all work on all murders and whoever is there for his/her shift works on all the murders they have on ? Or is there a specific group of people inside a MIT assigned to each case ? If there is who designate them ?
The MPS has 24 MIT. They are based in each borough.
Some borough must not have MIT then → Which ones ?
In which building are they based ? In a police station (which one) ? In another building ? The building of New Scotland Yard (on Broadway) only houses the Senior Management Team (the ACPO officers) right ?
I found an article (on the Independent website : http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/watching-the-murder-detectives-1922382.html + http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/the-phone-rings-theres-been-another-murder-1923230.html) which describes the lives of a MIT.
It says that there are 3 MIT on-call each week, one for each part of London (this one being for the South). What are the other two parts (I assume West and East) and what are their borders ?
Being on-call means they will be the first called to any new murder in their patch. But do they keep those cases or are they later given to another MIT (the one linked to the borough in which it happened ?) to solve ? Which one of the two propositions is correct (or something else entierely) ?
They are on call for a week, during which they get new cases. They then spend 7 weeks without new cases working on those they acquired during the week being on-call. So it means they work on cases from the whole of their patch of London.
They are on call for a week, doing primary crime scene investigation before reporting the cases to the MIT responsible for them. They then spend 7 weeks working on their cases (both those they already have and any new one happening in their borough). They work on cases concerning only their borough.
A few other questions :
Is there a MIT (or an equivalent team) working on 'high profile' - 'sensitive' cases ?
I know there are Detective Superintendents in the SCD1 but I have absolutely no idea where they fit in. In terms of rank they would be btw the Detective Chief Superintendent and the DCIs but I have found no trace of them. Are they somehow responsible for the three parts of London ?
What exactly is the 'Special Projects Investigation Unit' (found on Wikipedia, can not find it anywhere else) ?
The last question I had was regarding my MC career in the police force. How likely is it (age, number of years inside one rank, date of mariage and birth of children, etc) ? Did I miss anything ?
1980 (18 yo) : Joins the police in Sussex
1980 - 1982 : Probationary period as a PC in Sussex
1982 - 1986 : Four more years as a PC in Sussex
1987 (24 yo) : Transfer to London
1987 - 1989 : Two more years as a PC in one of London's borough
1989 (26 yo) : Training as an Authorized Firearms Officer (AFO) : roughly six months of training, interviews and procedures
1989 - 1991 : Two years as a PC with Armed Response (working as an AFO in an ARV)
1991 (29 yo) : Sergeant exam (he has spent 12 years as a Constable)
1991 - 1994 : Three more years as Sergeant with Armed Response (working as an AFO in an ARV)
1994 (31 yo) : Detective exam (National Investigative Exam) → leave Armed Response to join a CID
1994 - 1995 : Training as a detective in a CID in one of London's borough (Level 2 PIP) → he is now a TDS (Trainee Detective Sergeant)
1995 - 1996 : Probationary period as a detective, working as a DS in a CID in one of London's borough (He also marries during that year)
1996 - 1999 : Three years as a DS in a CID in one of London's borough
1999 (36 yo) : Transfer to Homicide and assignation to a MIT
1999 - 2004 : Five years as a DS in the MIT (They have their first child in 2000)
2004 (41 yo) : Inspector exam (he has spent 13 years as a Sergeant, 10 of them as a DS but only 5 in Homicide)- 2004 - 2013 : Nine years as a DI in a MIT (Their second child is born in 2006)
Thank you a lot for all information or correction you can provide me.
Have a nice day.
Rosesnake