6. Royalty and diplomatic protection department

Royalty Protection is divided into two parts: the Royal Palaces Division, dates back to 1839 and is responsible, for policing the royal residences of Buckingham Palace, Kensington Palace, St James’s Palace and Windsor Castle. In Scotland the section is responsible during periods of royal residence, for Balmoral Castle and Holyrood House. The other part of Royalty Protection is responsible for the personal protection of individual members of the Royal family.

The Diplomatic Protection Group is primarily responsible for the protection of Diplomatic premises and personnel, as well as visiting Heads of State and high risk V.I.P.s⁵ when they are staying at hotels or other premises. The Group also has responsibility for providing protection to certain political figures; the security at 10 Downing Street, and a support to the protection of London’s Royal Palaces, and the Palace of Westminster which includes both Houses of Parliament.

The Group maintains effective 24-hour protection for high risk and politically sensitive premises by both static policing, at fixed posts and mobile policing using cars, solo motorcycles and personnel carri­ers.

All officers serving with the Group are volunteers recruited from the ranks of police officers who have some years of operational street duty experience.

Today protection is a highly specialised service in the Metropoli­tan Police, and to operate effectively, close liaison is maintained with other groups in the protection field such as the Special Branch, the Special Escort Group and the Anti-Terrorist Branch.

The senior officer in charge of the Royalty and Diplomatic Pro­tection Department is a Deputy Assistant Commissioner who over­sees the close liaison between units concerned with protection. The Department is the foremost uniformed Anti-Terrorist group within the Metropolitan Police.

7. Special escort group

The Special Escort Group of the Metropolitan Police was first formed in November 1952 in preparation for the visit of Marshal Tito, President of Yugoslavia in March 1953. The Group was again used to escort Her Majesty the Queen during her Coronation in June of the same year.

In March 1956, the Group was reformed for the visit of the Soviet Leaders and has been used regularly since then to provide protocol and security escorts for visiting Heads of State and other ceremonial events. Since then the responsibilities of the Group have been ex­panded to include escorting members of the Royal Family and all aspects of security movements, for example the escorting of high- risk prisoners and high value loads, although this type of escort is usually carried out in motor cars.

The Special Escort group is made up of officers selected from the ranks of London’s Traffic Patrol. The members of the Group are all required to be advanced motor-cyclists and car drivers, having at­tended courses of instruction at the world famous Hendon Police Driving School. They are also trained in the use offirearms and anti­terrorist ambush techniques.

After many years of success in this role, the Special Escort Group became so well known that it was receiving requests from the public for displays of its skill. The idea of the Precision Team, composed of members of the SEG, was developed and came to fruition in 1959.

Since its formation, the Metropolitan Police Motor Cycle Preci­sion Team has been seen by countless numbers of visitors to outdoor shows, ranging from school fetes to county and international shows. The machines used are BMW K100 cc solo motor cycles. Each of­ficer is responsible for the appearance of his machine, which is equipped for normal Traffic Patrol and escort duties and fitted with road tyres.

The display is not one of trick-riding but is a disciplined team ef­fort, an essential requirement of escort duties. The object of such demonstration is to emphasise the control a motor cyclist should be able to exercise over his machine, and the manner in which a powerful motor cycle can be ridden at varying speeds in a confined area. From the beginning, a balance has been struck between entertaining the public and providing a demonstration of the skill required to carry out Ceremonial Escorts. With this in mind, the Group has developed a programme aimed at the motor cycling public, in the hope of influencing them to become better riders.

The Group’s role in providing escorts for Royalty and VIP visitors to this country, demands the same extremely high degree of skill in motorcycle control, bearing in mind the traffic congestion often found in and around London. Their primary aim is to provide a smooth, punctual and, above all, safe journey.