Back on the beat

When an institution is plagued by internal feuds, a loss of public trust and a muddled sense of mission, the elevation of an internal candidate to its helm is rarely a matter for celebration. But the appointment of Sir Paul Stephenson to be the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police is an exception to this generality. Unlike his predecessor, Sir Ian Blair, and his chief rival for the job, Sir Hugh Orde — head of the Police Service of Northern Ireland — Stephenson is not a politician in uniform. The new commissioner, who still commutes from his home in rural Lancashire, should bring a much-needed dose of common sense to the Met and return it to its core mission of fighting crime.

The appointment process, and the fate of his predecessor, will have alerted Stephenson to one of the biggest challenges that he faces: keeping both a Tory Mayor of London and a Labour Home Secretary happy. The Met’s counter-terrorism, Royal and diplomatic responsibilities make it a national force as well as a local one. In an ideal world, the Met would divest itself of these responsibilities, allowing it to concentrate on crime in London, while the Commissioner reports to the Mayor alone. But as there is no chance of that happening during his tenure, Stephenson should not try to serve two masters but one: the public.

It is an encouraging sign that Stephenson, who faced one interview panel at City Hall and one at the Home Office, was a unanimous choice. In uniting both the Mayor and the Home Secretary behind him, he has already achieved something that his predecessor never did.

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This is just as well because the task that Stephenson faces is immense. He must restore the pride and prestige of the Met, tackle the fear of crime that is as corrosive as crime itself, prevent the rise in crime that normally happens during a recession and protect the capital and the 2012 Olympics from terrorism.