section_path: Administration/Policing and crime
section_name: Policing and crime
paragraph_text: Policing and crime
  
  Policing in Greater London, with the exception of the City of London, is provided by the Metropolitan Police ("The Met"), overseen by the mayor through the Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC). The Met is also referred to as Scotland Yard after the location of its original headquarters in a road called Great Scotland Yard in Whitehall. The City of London has its own police force – the City of London Police. First worn by Met police officers in 1863, the custodian helmet has been called a "cultural icon" and a "symbol of British law enforcement". Introduced by the Met in 1929, the blue police telephone box (the basis for the TARDIS in the television series Doctor Who) was once a common sight throughout London and regional cities in the UK.
  
  The British Transport Police are responsible for police services on National Rail, London Underground, Docklands Light Railway and Tramlink services. The Ministry of Defence Police is a special police force in London, which does not generally become involved with policing the general public. The UK's domestic counterintelligence service, MI5, is headquartered in Thames House on the north bank of the River Thames and the foreign intelligence service, MI6, is headquartered in the SIS Building on the south bank.
  
  Crime rates vary widely across different areas of London. Crime figures are made available nationally at Local Authority and Ward level. In 2015 there were 118 homicides, a 25.5 per cent increase over 2014. Recorded crime has been rising in London, notably violent crime and murder by stabbing and other means have risen. There were 50 murders from the start of 2018 to mid April 2018. Funding cuts to police in London are likely to have contributed to this, though other factors are involved. However, homicide figures fell in 2022 with 109 recorded for the year, and the murder rate in London is much lower than other major cities around the world.