Historical Structure
Due to continual restructuring of the Metropolitan Police, only a few of the original SO units still exist in their original form and still use the SO designation. These are marked in bold. Where possible, the current name or organisation of the former SO unit is listed in italics. Where the SO designation has been reassigned to another unit, the units are listed in order
- SO1 – Specialist Protection (Merged with SO14, forming the Protection Command)
- SO2 – Crime Support Branch/Department Support Group
- SO3 – Scenes of Crime Branch/Directorate of Forensic Services (Now part of the Specialist Crime Directorate as SCD4 Forensic Services)
- SO4 – National Identification Service
- SO5 – Miscellaneous Force Indexes/Child Protection (now SCD5 Child Abuse Investigation Team)
- SO6 – Fraud Squad (now SCD6 Economic and Specialist Crime)
- SO7 – Serious and Organised Crime (Renamed to Serious and Organised Crime Group, SCD7)
- SO8 – Forensic Science Laboratory
- SO9 – Flying Squad (Now in SCD7, but retains same name and role).
- SO10 – Crime Operations Group (now SCD10 Covert Policing)
- SO11 – Criminal Intelligence Branch (Renamed to Public Order Operational Command Unit, CO11)
- SO12 – Special Branch (Merged with SO13 to create the Counter Terrorism Command)
- SO13 – Anti-Terrorism Branch (Merged with SO12)
- SO14 – Royalty Protection Branch (Merged with SO1)
- SO15 – Counter Terrorism Command
- SO16 – Diplomatic Protection Group (Now within the Protection Command).
- SO17 – PNC Bureau (now the Police Information Technology Organisation)
- SO18 – Aviation Security/Airport Policing (Now Aviation Security Operational Command Unit, CO18 within Central Operations)
- SO19 – Force Firearms Unit (Specialist Firearms Command, CO19)
- SO20 – Forensic Medical Examiners Branch
Read more about this topic: Specialist Operations
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