Abstract The ompD transcript, encoding an outer membrane porin in Salmonella, harbors a controlling element in its coding region that base-pairs imperfectly with a ‘seed’ region of the small regulatory RNA (sRNA) MicC. When tagged with the sRNA, the ompD mRNA is cleaved downstream of the pairing site by the conserved endoribonuclease RNase E, leading to transcript destruction. We observe that the sRNA-induced cleavage site is accessible to RNase E in vitro upon recruitment of ompD into the 30S translation pre-initiation complex (PIC) in the presence of the degradosome components. Evaluation of substrate accessibility suggests that the paused 30S PIC presents the mRNA for targeted recognition and degradation. Ribonuclease activity on PIC-bound ompD is critically dependent on the recruitment of RNase E into the multi-enzyme RNA degradosome, and our data suggest a process of substrate capture and handover to catalytic sites within the degradosome, in which sequential steps of seed matching and duplex remodelling contribute to cleavage efficiency. Our findings support a putative mechanism of surveillance at translation that potentially terminates gene expression efficiently and rapidly in response to signals provided by regulatory RNA.