The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), the police force of most of Greater London (the tiny City of London has its own, separate police force despite being only a Square Mile). Metropolitan is from Metropolis, meaning "Mother City".
The HQ of the Met is at New Scotland Yard, on the Victoria Embankment close to the Houses of Parliament. This is actually the third New Scotland Yard. (The name comes from the fact that the original HQ had a public entrance opening onto Great Scotland Yard, a street which got its name for housing the diplomatic mission of the Kingdom of Scotland in Tudor times.) The force is divided into Area commands that cover multiple boroughs, each having a two letter code seen on officer's shoulder numbers.
The Met Police is one of the two UK forces led by a Commissioner as opposed to a Chief Constable. This is currently Sir Mark Rowley.
In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when few police forces outside London had trained detectives, they would often call on Scotland Yard to send one to investigate any serious crime whose perpetrator wasn't obvious or where a suspect was socially important enough to make arresting them embarassing for a local cop (the real-world source of the Smith of the Yard trope). This is very rare now in Real Life unless you were dealing with a wandering Serial Killer and even then, real-life local forces would object. However, it often appears in works with contemporary settings by American authors whose knowledge of British police procedure still comes mostly from Agatha Christie or Dorothy L. Sayers novels.
In fiction
Rules for inclusion here:
- They must be the stars.
- The force must be identified as the MPS on screen or in dialogue. This is less common than you might think due to the use of Generic Cop Badges being widespread in British works and the fictional "Greater London Police" will often be substituted.
- Grandville, the first volume of which declares itself to be "A Detective Inspector LeBrock of Scotland Yard Scientific-Romance Thriller".
- The Blue Lamp is an iconic depiction of how the Metropolitan Police liked to see itself immediately after World War II.
- The Gideon novels by "J J Marric" (actually a pseudonym of the hyper-prolific John Creasey), which are often viewed as the first British Police Procedurals.
- John Devil by Paul Féval
- The Alleyn novels of Ngaio Marsh.
- The Daisy Dalrymple novels by Carola Dunn. Daisy persists in tripping over bodies and almost invariably ends up calling in Chief Inspector Fletcher of the Yard. This is made easier later in the series after they marry.
- The Detective Joe Sandilands, by Barbara Cleverly, stars Detective Sandilands of the Metropolitan Police, although he's seconded to the Bengal Police when first introduced.
- The Rivers of London books are about the Met's tiny, unfunded and barely acknowledged Weird Stuff division, better known as The Folly, comprising Gentleman Wizard Inspector Nightingale and his Apprentice DC Peter Grant.
- Superintendent Battle, created by Agatha Christie, is the primary detective of her books The Secret of Chimneys, The Seven Dials Mystery, Murder is Easy, and Towards Zero. He also appears as one of the detectives in Cards on the Table.
- Ashes to Ashes (2008) (but not its predecessor Life On Mars which is set in Manchester).
- Babylon
- Between the Lines (1992) is about the Metropolitan Police's Internal Affairs, at the time known as the Complaints Investigation Bureau (it's now the Directorate of Professional Standards).
- The Bill
- Dixon of Dock Green
- In Elementary, Sherlock Holmes and American detective Captain Gregson worked together at Scotland Yard before they both came to New York City.
- The Fall (2013): Gillian Anderson plays a Met detective who is brought in by the PSNI to assist in moving a cold case forward. Eventually she links two more murders to the case, and becomes the SIO in the hunt for the serial killer.
- The Inspector Alleyn Mysteries
- The Inspector Lynley Mysteries
- Luther
- New Tricks
- Prime Suspect
- Waking the Dead
