A Metropolitan Police media team has said it will only focus on “good news” from now on.
A shake-up means the South Cluster Met Police press office, which deals with local stories in South London, will no longer deal with “reactive media enquiries”.
Direct contact with Met Police officers (such as borough commanders) is largely off limits to local newspaper journalists. So it means all inquiries about comparatively minor local crimes will now go through the main Met Police press office.
The change was outlined to journalists in an email which said: “The South Cluster team we will no longer be responsible for any reactive media enquiries which includes the general enquires into incidents which have taken place, RTC's, twitter follow ups etc….
“Understandably this is a significant change in the way we currently work. Since the South Cluster team was set up nearly two years ago we have made good progress and have forged good relations (I hope) with you all which we want to maintain.
“The South Cluster team will now encompass 'pro-active' good news releases only.
“We will still be in touch with the boroughs and continue to liaise with officers to find out what is going on, getting the good news storie and letting you know of up-coming court appearances/sentencing's.
“We will continue to send out press releases of any proactive work we undertake.”
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