The Metropolitan Police spent £35m last year paying top cops salaries of above £100,000, accounts reveal.
Over 290 top officers and staff were paid more than £100,000, with the highest pay of £313,366, including benefits and pensions, going to assistant commissioner Louisa Rolfe.
It comes after public confidence in the embattled force hit a record low in 2022, after a run of scandals in the wake of the murder of Sarah Everard by serving armed cop Wayne Couzens.
Last month, a Home Office-commissioned review by senior lawyer Lady Elish Angiolini called for a radical overhaul of police vetting and recruitment, without which she warned: “There is nothing to stop another Couzens operating in plain sight.”
Ex-commissioner Dame Cressida Dick, who left the force in early 2022, received £185,810, which included around £17,000 in salary on top of her exit package.
Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley was paid £168,664 in total after coming in to lead the Met partway into the financial year, alongside deputy commissioner Lynne Owens on £140,418.
Data analysis by City A.M. of the force’s unaudited accounts for 2022/23 showed the Met spent more than £3.15bn of its £4.2bn budget on pay.
The report detailed police officers and staff earning above £50,000 in pay bands, which cost the Met a minimum of £1.2bn. Salary levels other than those of the commissioner and deputy commissioner are set by the central government.
Of this, £27m went to 251 unnamed officers and staff on more than £100,000. But on top of this, 40 senior high-ranking officers and staff – who were identified by name – were also paid £8m in total remuneration.
Titles on the highly-paid list included: an interim director of strategy and transformation on £177,610; a director of programme productivity review on £143,307; a director of service delivery on £192,657; a director of solution delivery on £196,712; and a director of communications and engagement, earning £200,450.
It’s understood these roles relate to governance and risk; the New Met for London Plan; and digital, data and technology. The programme productivity director position is a Home Office commissioned role funded by the Met through the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC).
Most senior staff and top officers got a benefits package of £3,075. Rowley and Owens were listed as receiving £1,794 in benefits, while the force’s chief scientific officer was on £1,537.
The accounts are understood to be expected to be audited within weeks, ahead of the extended national statutory deadline for public sector finances of September 2024.
A report last year by the cross-party levelling up committee of MPs urged ministers to tackle “a large and growing” backlog of accounts with incomplete audits, which they called a “crisis”.
It comes after City A.M. reported on the so-called ‘City Hall Rich List’ of 1,146 staff on over £100,000.
Elliot Keck, head of campaigns of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “Londoners will be livid about the mushrooming cost of the Met.
“While taxpayers would be happy to stump up for an effective and efficient force, the capital’s police spend more time battling scandals than fighting crime.
“Police bosses need to get the Met focusing on the basics, which means catching criminals and protecting the public.”
And Maxwell Marlow, research director at the Adam Smith Institute (ASI), added: “London has a serious crime problem, and the response thus far has been insufficiently urgent.
“Higher salaries are needed to retain top talent and enable senior officers to live in London, but the Met is far too top heavy.
“There are too few police constables on the front line, with too much manpower spent on the back office and on management. This is particularly true of specialist units.”
Liberal Democrat mayoral candidate Rob Blackie, who is campaigning for City Hall under the slogan ‘Fix the Met’, said: “High salaries can be justified if an organisation is working well.”
He told City A.M.: “The Metropolitan Police, led by the mayor, is in a mess. It’s hard to justify this much money being spent when public trust in the police is at an all-time low.
“The public, and ordinary police officers, will expect to see police systems and efficiency quickly improving for the salaries the Met is paying.”
Conservative candidate Susan Hall, a former City Hall Tory group and council leader, has previously used the slogan ‘Safer with Susan’. Her team declined to comment on the figures.
A spokesperson for London Labour said: “Sadiq wants London’s reformed police service to be the very best in the world, and this means attracting the very best talent from a diverse range of backgrounds.
“The Met Police is the largest force in the country, with an array of responsibilities – whether front-line policing, counter-terrorism or policing national events as our capital’s police force.
“Sadiq will continue to hold to account and support the Met Police, ensuring it continues on a path of fundamental organisational and cultural reform.”
They added: “The choice facing Londoners is clear. Sadiq, committed to investing in front-line policing and the transparent reform of the Met Police, or his Tory opponent who believes these issues should be swept under the carpet, dealt with behind closed doors.”
The Met Police have been contacted for comment.