MPS County Lines Operations Centre

The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) has been allocated £5.6m grant funding to set up and run an MPS County Lines Unit in 2020/21.

County Lines is a drug supply business model, predominately of Class A, and is an industry believed to be worth in excess of £800m UK wide. The funding will assist the MPS to achieve high impact results to combat groups running county lines.

This paper seeks approval to accept the Home Office funding and the paper outlines how the money will be used over the timeframe from 1 April 2020 to 31 March 2021.

The Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime is recommended to:

1. To approve the acceptance of the £5.6m Home Office funding. The grant funding is for expenditure during the period 1 April 2020 to 31 March 2021. The grant is managed through quarterly returns via corporate finance partners. Funding is received end of year.
2. Note the expansion of Operation Orochi into the MPS County Line Operations Centre (MCLOC) to undertake a range of activities to combat County Lines drugs supply and its associated threat, risks and harm.

1. Introduction and background

1. 1. County Lines is a drug supply business model, predominately of Class A, and is an industry believed to be worth in excess of £800m UK wide. This in turn stimulates the activity within the middle market drugs supply linked to organised crime.

1. 2. The scale of the current complex threat posed by county lines in relation to the exploitation of children and other vulnerable persons to facilitate drug dealing is extensive and affects every police force area.

1. 3. The NCA and National County Lines Co-Ordination Centre 2019 assessments provide evidence that London is the biggest exporter of county lines. This equates to 30% of the 800-1000 active county lines drug networks across the UK.

2. Issues for consideration

1. 1. The core aims of Op Orochi are:

      • To create operational partnerships with Home County Forces (HCFs) – to target County Line-Line Holders that control the Line, with an objective to charge and remand for drug supply offences, seize weapons, cash, and confiscate other realised asset. Evidence shows that these offenders are often violent offenders resident in London.

      • Safeguarding intelligence actioned immediately with the commencement of modern slavery offences where applicable. This will involve joint working between MPS and the County Force. Op Orochi will also use the investigative methodology already shown to be successful targeting line-holders, by utilizing intelligence from exploited children. This will provide opportunities for Modern Slavery charges and also identify further active lines that the OCN may be using to exploit further children.

      • Conduct overt operations to disrupt County Lines activity in partnership with forces/partners, focusing on transport routes and wanted offenders.

1. 2. Funding will be used to build internal intelligence flows from within MPS and into Op Orochi. This will be a referral process but will allow for BCU staff to be mentored whilst retaining primacy. This structure will allow for best practice to be shared and allow hardware and software used specifically for this work, provided with previous funding, to be maximized.

• 3. This funding is to enable the creation of a new unit to build on the lessons learnt from Operation Orochi (the pilot presented in DMPC decision paper PCD726). Op Orochi was focused on reducing the harm caused by County Lines, both in the MPS and the HCFs;

• by arresting, charging and convicting for serious offences, those violent offenders controlling the CLs and the London gangs behind them;

• by disrupting the flow of Class A drugs to the HCF and reducing the consequential harm that follows.

• by safeguarding the vulnerable including those children criminally and sexually exploited.

1. 4. Op Orochi has enabled the MPS to deliver operational results for those criminal networks who operate from London into importing forces. The funds will assist with the MPS in achieving further high volume, high impact results to combat these groups running county lines.

1. 5. Op Orochi is an Operational Command Unit with 100% capability to investigate, proactively and reactively. This unit will deliver direct impact to the issue of County Lines by targeting those that control, organize and facilitate this illegal activity, thus rendering the deal line ‘closed’. The NCLCC co-ordinate activity and gather intelligence from Forces / ROCUs, therefore don’t have any operational capability and has led to the requirement for an MPS unit.

1. 6. The staffing of Op Orochi expansion, 59 MPS officers and 4 police staff,will come from across MPS business groups and the funding awarded is required to pay staffing costs along with equipment, vehicles and overtime.The staff will be seconded from existing posts and redeployed at the end of the funding period. The vacancies from the Secondments are already being managed through ongoing PC uplifts into the MPS.

3. Financial Comments

4. 1. The full cost to establish the unit including the cost of the 59 police officers and 4 police staff and associated running costs will be fully funded by the £5.6m Home Office grant.

1. 2. Detailed information is contained in the restricted section of the report.

4. Legal Comments

1. 1. Paragraph 4.8 of the MOPAC Scheme of Delegation and Consent provides that the Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime (DMPC) has delegated authority to approve all bids for grant funding made and all offers made of grant funding.

5. GDPR and Data Privacy

1. 1. The MPS is subject to the requirements and conditions placed on it as a 'State' body to comply with the European Convention of Human Rights and the Data Protection Act (DPA) 2018. Both legislative requirements place an obligation on the MPS to process personal data fairly and lawfully in order to safeguard the rights and freedoms of individuals.

1. 2. Under Article 35 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Section 57 of the DPA 2018, Data Protection Impact Assessments (DPIA) become mandatory for organisations with technologies and processes that are likely to result in a high risk to the rights of the data subjects.

1. 3. A DPIA will be completed for this project prior to it becoming operational. The project will ensure a privacy by design approach, which will allow the MPS to find and fix problems at the early stages of any project, ensuring compliance with GDPR. DPIAs support the accountability principle, as they will ensure the MPS complies with the requirements of GDPR and they demonstrate that appropriate measures have been taken to ensure compliance.

6. Equality Comments

1. 1. This business case has undergone initial equality screening. Due regard has been taken to the Equality Act’s Public Sector Equality Duty under Sec 149 of the Equality Act 2010. Consideration has been taken to assess equality impact caused by the proposed business change including effective engagement and analysing relevant equality information. As a result, no negative impact has been identified to any individual at this stage; however, a full EIA will be completed prior to any operational activity being undertaken by the expanded unit. It is important to note that Op Orochi uses a methodology that identifies the criminal enterprise (the county line) at the outset and this is the starting point of the investigation. This investigation then leads to those responsible for the illegal enterprise and only those responsible for holding / controlling the line are subject of police action.

7. Background/supporting papers

1. 1. The MPS Report.