The Met reporting systems downfall

Anyone that follows me on my twitter or youtube will know that recently I’ve been posting a lot of result videos, some fantastic results from the Met Police (London Police force). These are mostly detailed in my Results playlist on youtube.

I’ve been reporting to the Met for the past 10 years, they’ve had various methods, from filling out paper forms and burning disks to fully fledged online forms where you can upload footage.

The later started in early 2018 and since then I’ve made 187 reports. Nearly 70% of these reports have resulted in some form of action; warning letters, driving courses, fixed penalty notices or court action. But 28% have had no action taken!

Whilst no action responses from the Met are sometimes not what I want, I try to learn from each one and work out if I should make similar reports in the future or what information is needed. So in 2018 32% of my reports had no action taken and in 2019 that is down to 25%. I’ve also had an increase of nearly 100% in reports from 2018 to 2019, so the reduced no action is positive.

Their downfall however is the inconsistencies in the responses from the Met on what they will or won’t take action on. I do of course understand the issue with Mobile Phone offences and Barretto Case, although they should just go for not being in proper control, but that’s another story.

So lets look at two report types I have reported and the responses.

Number plate offences.

We all know that there are various things drivers are doing to change/mask their number plates. Things like putting them in the window, incorrect font, markings to make them look different and a recent trend of putting a tinting film over the top of them. Here are my reports:

Number plateIssueResponse
AS11CCCThere was a dot between the two ones to make it look like a H.No action
T11OPEThere was a dot between the two ones to make it look like a HFPN £100
Number plate too small on a motorbike and in a position difficult to readNIP
Missing number plate from trailerNIP
Different number plate on trailerNIP
Number plate using incorrect font and makes numbers look like a letterNo response
SS11ALYThere was a dot between the two ones to make it look like a H.No Action

So 7 reports over the two years. 3 are ongoing, 1 i’ve not had a response yet. But the 3 that I have had a response on are all exactly the same. A dot between the 11’s to make it look like a H. In all cases I provided a view with enough detail to show that it isn’t the fixing bolts.

The first and last were no action for what ever reason, but the second was issued a FPN of £100 for the offence. Why now are they not taking action when they have previously? I asked them, and this is the response I got:

The policy now is that we will not deal with vehicle defect offences. This is because depending on the defect, trained Police Officers need to take measurements, use specific equipment etc, and that is not something which can be done via media in case we are challenged in court

Met Police

It’s a super easy offence, the video is clear as day in regards to my recent report that had no action taken. The reason we have so many issues with people not using the correct format of number plates is because there is A. no enforcement by the Police B. a tiny penalty of £100. Now to some this is a considerable amount of money, but these are not the people that are changing their number plates.

Red Light offences

I’m only going to focus on those going through the junction, and not those not stopping at the first stop line. Whilst they are the same offence from a legal standing, I find they are dealt with very differently.

Frames since redSeconds since redAction taken
602NIP
40013.333driving course
45515.166NIP
702*23.4NIP
250.833driving course
541.8failed to nominate
6 points £826 fines
220.733Warning letter
290.966Warning Letter
1374.566driving course
140446.8NIP
290.966NIP
80.266no action
190.633Warning letter
311.033No Action
240.8NIP
110.366No action
581.933NIP

* note I didn’t see the light turn from green to red, so this was technically longer.

17 reports total, the on going ones are likely going to a driving course, FPN or court case. The ones with a very long time are ones where they mostly jumped before it changed.

No Action is a range of 8 – 31 frames
Warning letter is a range of 19 – 29 frames
driving course is a range of 25 – 400 frames
NIP means action is being taken and it’s 24 frames and up.

So there is clearly a lot of overlap on each type, which we would of course expect to some degree, I don’t think they are going through frame by frame to count how bad they are.

Now I did flag on a couple of these reports that there is this overlap. I had a no action on one which was over a second late on the red light. I was told on one report that they wouldn’t take action unless it was over 2 seconds.

We would not be able to pursue an allegation of this sort unless they went through the red lights at least 2 seconds after they change as no court would convict for this.

Met Police

Clearly given the several reports under 2 seconds that they are taking action on, this isn’t the case.

We must remember, the amber phase is shown for 3 seconds before the red on all of these traffic lights and amber means the same as red. So these drivers had plenty of time to stop!

I’ve picked these two types of incidences because they are factual and clear cut. I will of course concede that the quality of footage on other reports can lead to ambiguity as to what is actually happening and as such do agree that the footage isn’t clear enough for them to do anything.

To put this all into perspective, and why this system is a positive. Of the 187 reports made so far:

  • 61% are issued NIPs (Notice of intended prosecutions)
  • 6% are issued warnings
  • 28% have no action taken
  • 5% are awaiting feedback

Of the 115 reports that have been issued NIPs, 56 are completed:

  • 16 were sent on driving courses
  • 18 were issued FPNs (fixed penalty notices)
  • 22 went to court.

This has resulted in:

  • 178 points issued
  • £14,490 in fines

I have 59 outstanding NIPs, given the 56 results, we can expect to see a further:

  • 187 points issued
  • £15,266 in fines

My stats from 2010 till 2018 from all my reports was 1 driving course and 4 court cases, which resulted in

  • 18 points
  • £1,495 in fines.

So definitely a great improvement in how the Police in London are dealing with reports, however the inconsistency in how they handle clear cut factual reports is disappointing.


3 thoughts on “The Met reporting systems downfall

  1. Brilliant results, I think, brilliant research.
    It appears that the Met could benefit if they were to provide cyclists with camera, with a caveat of that they make a minimum of reports.

  2. Great research and a well written article. I’ve stumbled across this as I’ve recently had what I thought was a few clear cut red light offences rejected (reported to met with helmet camera footage as a cyclist), so had a quick google. In one case an advisory letter was sent to the driver (which is something). But the reason given for not issuing an NIP was actually that, unless we could prove the speed the car was travelling at when the light turned red (which obviously I cant prove from a helmet cam or dash cam) then they could argue in court that they would have had to perform a dangerous emergency stop to stop in time. Whilst claiming this defense might indicate speeding, we cant prove the speeding without a speed camera, so no offence!

    Response from Met Police:

    “We cannot argue in court “The car was accelerating, when you can see i am braking (reducing speed)”. This is not enough evidence and the court would require the speed of the vehicle. We are unable to provide the speed because a Home Office calibrated device was not at the scene, therefore the case would be terminated.

    In regards to the vehicle not stopping whilst the traffic lights were amber for 3 seconds, unfortunately the driver could argue that it was unsafe for him to stop at the ASL. The Highway Code states that a vehicle must stop at a red light if safe to do so. The driver could use this to their advantage because even though the driver accelerated causing it unsafe to stop, we are unable to prove their accelerated speed.

    In order to prosecute a driver, we have to consider every aspect of the court of law to enable a successful prosecution. An advisory letter to the driver was the best option in this case due to the potential defense the driver could use.”

    That seems a bizarre argument and inconsistent with your research, so i’m wondering if you’ve had any similar examples given? It seems to me that this approach could encourage speeding. In effect, put your foot down to get through the lights and as long as there’s no speed camera there, you wont be prosecuted.

    I’ve since stopped reporting RLJ offences as I felt they’d be a waste of time (mine and the police’s which I do value). However, having seen your article I might reconsider next time, perhaps I was just unlucky.

    Keep up the good work and stay safe.

    1. I have had similar responses. If they just cross the line when the light has turned red, then I find it’s unlikely they will take action.
      In fact, it’s detailed in the above post.

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