But concerns have been expressed that the loss of the specialist teams – which are funded by Transport for London – could make the capital’s roads more dangerous.
The Met said it was creating a new “road danger reduction team” that would “proactively enforce the most serious road traffic offences such as speeding, drink and drug driving and driving while on a mobile phone”.
It will take on some of the duties of the cycle safety team, motorcycle safety team and commercial vehicle unit.
The Met says that some of its dedicated transport officers will be replaced but says that its traffic police will be retained.
In the 2024/25 financial year, TfL contributed £93.8 million toward the costs of the Met’s road and transport policing command, including funding officers and PCSOs (police community support officers) in safer transport teams in each of the 32 boroughs policed by the Met.
There are thought to be about 1,500 officers and 500 PCSOs in the road and transport policing command.
Last month, PCSOs who currently enforce parking restrictions on TfL’s Red Routes protested outside City Hall at a plan to transfer their roles to a TfL contractor, despite having been directly employed by the Met for the last 20 years.
Caroline Russell, the Green party member of the London Assembly, pointed out that a proposed 14 per cent reduction in the Met’s roads and transport policing command would result, in the Met’s own words, in “reduced capacity for fast road responses, pursuit resolutions and road danger reduction”.
The Motorcycle Action Group has condemned the Met’s decision to disband its six-officer motorcycle safety team, which also provides hundreds of safety courses for bikers and courier riders each year.
Prior to Christmas, TfL told stakeholders that “dedicated road safety policing teams covering areas such as commercial vehicles, cycles, motorcycles… will also no longer exist in their current form”.
It added that “engagement, education and byelaw enforcement will now be delivered by TfL’s own enforcement teams, freeing up police resources to focus on tackling crime.”
In a freedom of information response in December, the Met said: “Colleagues within the commercial vehicle unit were advised recently that their current operating model as a standalone department will not continue.
“Certain functions previously undertaken by this unit are expected to be incorporated into a newly established Road Danger Reduction Team.”
It is the only 24/7 specialist response team for serious and fatal incidents involving HGVs and buses.
TfL said that work currently undertaken by the cycle safety team, the motorcycle safety team, the commercial vehicle unit and the taxi and private hire policing team would be carried out by combined “multi-skilled team”.
It said the Met’s road danger reduction team and roads policing teams would retain the “specialist expertise” needed to protect vulnerable road users, such as cyclists, pedestrians and motorbike riders, from harm.
A TfL spokesperson said: “The Met has set out its vision for policing in London through strong neighbourhood policing teams which changes the way they will police London’s roads and transport networks.
“We have been working closely with the Met, and will provide funding to them, to ensure that there is additional policing effort for the transport network, keeping our customers, staff and road users safe and secure.
“Through our strong partnership working with the Met and our continued investment, there will be additional policing focus on tackling hate crime and violence against women and girls on the bus network and in taxi and private hire vehicles, safeguarding young people as they travel on the bus network, tackling violence and aggression against transport workers, reducing road danger and improving bus and road reliability.”
