Metropolitan Police Chief Calls for Reduction in Bureaucratic Burden on Officers

The Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Sir Mark Rowley, takes an oath to King Charles III at New Scotland Yard in central London on Sept. 12, 2022. PA

The Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Sir Mark Rowley, has described the bureaucratic burden on his officers as “death by 1,000 paper cuts.”

Rowley told a joint summit of the National Police Chiefs’ Council and the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners on Wednesday: “Some of the officers I talked to are more worried about getting in trouble for not filling in forms correctly than they are confronting dangerous people on the streets.”