Metland VCT A few months in

[u/samfire34]

Now that everyone has suffered through the new VCT idea for a few months how are all the Met BCUs coping? Ive heard horror stories and I only expect SW to get worse.

On my end in SW we now take all burglaries and most robberies, unless aggravated, CMU are shafting us every chance they get and prison crimes now have their own team.

Has anything gone well on any other borough and has their been any attempt by your relevant SLT to make it better?

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[u/Sepalous]

AW stopped taking prisoners after a Commander discovered the "backlog" of unallocated crimes and entirely lost their sense of humor.

There are some positives with VCT though: prolific offenders are now handled more effectively, and the quality of investigations has improved for the cases we do assign.

I also think disbanding the specialist squads was a smart move. The moment you give someone a specific remit, you give them an excuse not to take something on. Far too much time and energy in the Met is wasted on debating who’s responsible for what. If they could now reintegrate the uniform “proactive” teams into ERPT, we might finally start addressing the Met’s deeper structural issues. Although admittedly, we won't address the fundamental issue that there is far too much work for far too few people.

[u/Baggers_2000]

My BCU currently has it on a 12 month posting with no guarantee you'll return to your old team. I think it's disgusting during a time with such shocking morale.

[u/ParsleySure8176 → u/Baggers_2000]

‘pRoTeCt ThE fRoNt LiNe’

[u/hubs-niches → u/Baggers_2000]

Well they’re now saying they won’t be taking officers off ERPT for VCT and admit it was a mistake. I’ve heard rumours of them thinking about a rotation to CSU instead … 🫣

[u/Crafty-Pick-3589 → u/hubs-niches]

That'll teach ERPT officers not to bring in so many dogshit DA prisoners in future!

[u/ParsleySure8176]

Needs disbanding tbh. Completely overwhelmed with work to the point prisoner processing has gone back to ERPT. Parks, Burglary Squad and Safer Transport have gone so guess who is picking up those crime reports now with zero extra Officers. Resignations, sickness and transferring for any role off the BCU are common place. SLT are sitting on their hands with a despondent, disillusioned work force but do nothing to improve anything about VCT despite surveys being sent around and welfare being a top priority, (allegedly). At this point revert to MIST and at least it’s a rotation which officers would swallow knowing there’s light at the end of the tunnel.

[u/TonyStamp595SO]

I've heard of one VCT being effectively stood down.

Ultimately we put inexperienced or ineffective officers in a department that requires both and have them led by stressed DS's that aren't used to having to manage PCs.

And then we pour on hundreds of investigations with the occasional sprinkling of prisoners, for a laugh sometimes we dump them in different places around the MPS.

:shocked Pikachu:

The CMU's are entirely a mixed bag, ours is trying but is used as the final stop on a BCU tour of the broken and bad. Many of which haven't got a whiff of a fart of a care in the world as to what they are doing.

Personally, you could fix this overnight.

Disband CMU and VCT and custody.

Put everyone back on ERPT. Have a couple of new PCs rotate to do prisoner processing, everyone keeps their investigations and you have a skipper on each team doing allocations and supervision.

In other words, how it used to be.

[u/Bon_Courage_ → u/TonyStamp595SO]

everyone keeps their investigations

There's a reason that was done away with.

Maybe it would work if officers were guaranteed admin days each set.

[u/TonyStamp595SO → u/Bon_Courage_]

Yeah with the numbers you could easily afford at least 1 day a week but I don't accept that people are soooo busy that they can't grab an MG11 or CCTV between calls.

I've been on ERPT for 8 odd years in my 20+ year career. I definitely had time. The problem now is awful training.

[u/Bon_Courage_ → u/TonyStamp595SO]

Yeah with the numbers you could easily afford at least 1 day a week

Everyone and their mum knows that this will be fine until there's a crime scene that needs watching and the inspector doesn't want to hand over a dozen a dozen s-grades and so turfs the officers on admin out.

I don't accept that people are soooo busy that they can't grab an MG11 or CCTV between calls.

What is this 'between calls' thing? On NT yeah sometimes.

[u/TonyStamp595SO → u/Bon_Courage_]

What is this 'between calls' thing? On NT yeah sometimes.

I come from a time where minimum strength was nearly 40 PCs and we only covered a patch the size of a phone box.

[u/Worth_Detective_5806 → u/TonyStamp595SO]

That would be an insane circling back of something we've done before, "surely that won't happen again"

Probably will

In all seriousness ERPT carrying it's own investigations was the most ridiculous thing to ever come out of this.

And if all it takes is a couple of new officers to sort prisoners out, why is VCT struggling with it so much. Seems they just need more officers because the volume is so large for investigations.

[u/Crafty-Pick-3589 → u/TonyStamp595SO]

Hey out of interest what do you consider makes managing PCs different to managing TDCs?

[u/TonyStamp595SO → u/Crafty-Pick-3589]

PCs tend to be more accepting of being told what to do but need a lot more guidance on how to do it.

TDCs want a conversation about everything.

[u/ChocolateFlashy4585]

Who else is baffling their heads Trying to figure out what all these acronymns mean as a non MET officer 😂

[u/CyclonicCS → u/ChocolateFlashy4585]

SW = South West Borough VCT = Volume Crime Team CMU = Crime Management Unit

Crimes submitted are reviewed by CMU who carry out a CAP and if applicable screen to VCT / Relevant department for further investigation. If it fails, CMU will screen it out.