Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley apologised for letting Londoners down on Tuesday after a damning review said there’s “institutional racism, misogyny, and homophobia” in the police force.
But the police chief rejected the word “institutional,” saying it has become politicised and ambiguous in recent years.
The review into the Met’s standards of behaviour and internal culture, released by Baroness Louise Casey on Tuesday, was commissioned last year after serving Met Police officer Wayne Couzens kidnapped, raped, and murdered 33-year-old marketing executive Sarah Everard.
The report said the Met has faced “significant challenges” in recent years such as the lack of resources, changes in crime patterns, greater non-crime demand and public expectations, and a regulatory system that makes it difficult to sack people.
The Met, which employs more than 47,000 officers, is run as “a set of disconnected and competing moving parts,” the report found. Vetting processes are “not vigilant in identifying clear warning signs,” and “periodic re-vetting has been perfunctory, and self-declarations are relied upon,” it added.
The review welcomed the recent change in the Met’s leadership, but condemned “deep seated cultures” such as having “too much hubris and too little humility,” being defensive and quick to deny criticism, stifling complaints, failure to reflect on systemic issues, and not prioritising frontline policing.
The review found that violence against women and girls has not been taken as seriously as other forms of violence, citing the testimony of an officer who told the investigators that a whole team of experienced and specialist trained detectives would be assigned to a murder investigation, while a woman raped and left in a coma would likely be dealt with by one trainee detective constable.
Within the force, discrimination had been allowed to become “baked into the system,” the report said.
It also said Casey’s team found “widespread bullying,” particularly of those who are disabled, identify as LGBTQ+, female, or from an ethnic minority.
The report said it has found “institutional racism, misogyny, and homophobia in the Met.”
It also said the force is not diverse enough to reflect London’s various ethnic groups, as officers are 82 percent white and 71 percent male.
Asked if there could be more Met officers like Couzens or his former colleague, serial rapist David Carrick, Casey said, “I cannot sufficiently assure you that that is not the case.”
Responding to the review, Rowley, who took over as Met commissioner in September last year, said, “I accept her diagnosis about the racism, misogyny, and homophobia in the organisation.”
“And also that we have these systemic failings, management failings, cultural failings,“ he added, but said he wouldn’t use the term ”institutional.”
“I understand her use of the term institutional. It’s not a term I use myself,” he said.
“I’m a practical police officer. I have to use language that’s unambiguous and is apolitical, and that term means lots of different things to different people and has become politicised in recent debate over the last decade or so.”
Rowley said he couldn’t ensure there are no bad officers, but the Met is “doing everything [it] can do to reduce that risk.”
After Carrick was jailed, all police forces in England and Wales were told to conduct checks on their staff. Rowley previously said he expected two or three officers a week to appear in court charged with offences linked to dishonesty, sexual offences, violence, or domestic violence.
He said on Tuesday that a full update will be given in the coming weeks.
The Met chief also apologised to Londoners who feel let down by the police.
“We let people down. I repeat the apology I gave in my first weeks as commissioner to Londoners and to our own people in the Met,” he said. “The appalling examples of discrimination, the letting down of communities and victims, and the strain faced by the front line are unacceptable. I’m deeply sorry for that.”
Speaking to “BBC Breakfast,” Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the trust in police has clearly been “hugely damaged,” but said work is already underway to regain it.
“It’s not just in London, across the country we’ve changed the guidance for police forces, for how they vet new police officers,” he said.
“All police forces are checking all their police officers again against the police database, and they’re all being inspected by the independent inspector of police forces to make sure that that’s all happening.”
London Mayor Sadiq Khan told the same programme that Tuesday was “one of the darkest days in the history of our almost 200-year-old Met Police service.”
He said it is “really important” that if the Met is going to have a future it must “embrace the recommendations” of Casey’s report.
Speaking in Parliament following the publication of the review, Home Secretary Suella Braverman paid tribute to police officers for their sacrifices, and said Casey’s report makes for “very concerning reading.”
“It’s clear that there have been serious failures of culture, leadership, and standards within the Metropolitan Police. That’s why Sir Mark Rowley’s top priority since becoming commissioner has been to deliver a plan to turn around the Met and restore confidence in policing in London,“ she said, adding that the report ”underlines the fact that the Met faces a long road to recovery.”
Braverman said she will increase funding and ensure the Met has all the support it needs from central government, and urged all forces to “focus relentlessly on commonsense policing that stops crime and keeps the public safe.”
She also said she would hold the Met and the mayor of London to account, and asked the public to judge them on their actions and not words.
Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said the report is “thorough, forensic, and truly damning,” and expressed Labour’s support for the work Rowley is doing to “start turning the Met around.”
But she also raised concern that “the home secretary’s statement is dangerously complacent,” saying, “Astonishingly there is no new action set out in her response, simply words saying that the Met must change.”
“Some of the issues raised are particular to the Met because of its size, history, particular culture, where the home secretary and mayor are jointly responsible for oversight and where the commissioner is responsible for delivering. But the report also raises serious wider issues for the Home Office,” Cooper said.
Responding to Cooper, Braverman said she was “disappointed” by Cooper’s tone, adding, “Today is not a day for crass political point-scoring; it is a day for serious and sober consideration of the Met’s shortcomings and how those shortcomings have a devastating impact on people’s lives.”
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