New team to strengthen community protection

The Met has launched a new Home Office-funded Community Protection Team (CPT).
 

The new team is funded by Government as part of a wider national focus on protective policing. It responds to the sustained rise in antisemitic hate crime, alongside the broader threat picture facing Jewish communities, including terrorism, state threats and other forms of targeted hostility. Together, these factors create a unique and enduring policing challenge that requires a dedicated and specialist response. The ambition is that this model can provide a blueprint for protecting other communities facing similarly elevated levels of threat and harm in the future.

In its first phase, the CPT will provide a more visible, consistent and intelligence-led policing response in areas where Jewish communities are experiencing a particularly high level of risk. Officers and staff will focus on proactive protection, targeted patrols, enforcement and action against high-harm perpetrators.

The Home Office has provided more than £100 million in additional funding to support this protective policing work. That means we can move from short-term surges of officers, which we know put pressure on other parts of the Met, into a more permanent and sustainable model. It will help us protect communities where the risk is highest, while reducing the need to repeatedly draw officers away from other teams and locations.

Commander James Conway, Senior Responsible Officer, said:

“Since March we have been abstracting officers from other parts of the Met. This was the right thing to do but we know this has been disruptive and takes resources away from other communities, which is why we made the case to Government to be able to build a more sustainable and permanent solution. They have now given us the funding to do this.  

“We want the Jewish community to feel safe and protected from harm by having clear visibility of officers who are there to protect them.   

“This approach reflects what we know works best: officers who are locally based, crime focused, understand their communities, and have strong relationships with residents, schools, faith leaders and volunteers.”   

Antisemitic hate crime recorded by the Met has reached a two-year high, with offences recorded across most boroughs and particularly high volumes in areas including Barnet, Camden and Hackney. Jewish Londoners face a uniquely high threat, with previous Met analysis showing they are over seven times more likely to be victims of hate crime than Muslim Londoners.  

The focus of the CPT reflects that current risk picture and the sustained threat affecting Jewish communities in London. However, this does not change our commitment to tackling hate crime in all its forms. Racism, anti-Muslim hate crime, homophobia and other forms of hatred remain core policing priorities across London. The CPT is being introduced first where the current threat, harm and demand are most acute, while also helping us build a model that can be used more widely when any community faces increased targeted hostility. 

The CPT is designed to help manage a significant and ongoing demand on the Met. Since March, officers have been abstracted from other teams and locations to provide protection where risk has escalated. This can be disruptive and adds pressure to already busy frontline services. 
 

A dedicated team means we can provide visible protection where it is most needed without repeatedly relying on short-term abstractions from elsewhere. The CPT has initially been set up within North West and Central East BCUs, where the highest levels of hostility towards Jewish communities are currently being seen. Further locations will be considered based on risk, threat and community need. 
 

Over time, the CPT will take on demand currently sitting with Emergency Response and Patrol Teams, Volume Crime Teams and Safer Neighbourhood Teams. This will help those officers focus on their core roles while giving communities a more consistent and reassuring response. The team will also work with Protective Security Operations and be supported by wider capability funded through the Home Office investment, including a central hate crime team, dedicated intelligence support, increased armed policing and additional resources within Counter Terrorism Policing. 
 

Officers and staff will work alongside neighbourhood policing teams, not replace them. They will provide a specialist focus on community protection, risk and partnerships, while neighbourhood teams continue to lead ward-level policing, local engagement and broad community contact. Teams will share tasking, intelligence and supervision so the response is joined up and resources are used well.