London’s Metropolitan Police force is institutionally racist, misogynist and homophobic with women and children placed “at greater risk” by lax standards and criminal officers, a report has found.
The force has put “Londoners last” as it lurches from one scandal to the next while failing to root out bad officers.
Baroness Louise Casey, commissioned to conduct a review after the murder of Sarah Everard by serving police officer Wayne Couzens, called her 363-page report published on Tuesday “rigorous, stark and unsparing”.
The case was followed by the trial of another Met officer, David Carrick, who was in February sentenced to at least 30 years behind bars for attacking a dozen women over a 17-year period.
Speaking on Radio 4 on Tuesday, Baroness Casey said the murder of Ms Everard by a serving Met Police officer should have been policing's equivalent of a “plane falling out of the sky”. It should have sparked questions about how someone like that could get that far in the force.
“And my report is bookended then, by, only in February, a serial rapist, again a firearms officer in the Met Police, where the organisation missed at least nine opportunities to try to put together what had happened with him,” she said.
Baroness Casey said in the process of restructuring, “choices were made” which essentially despecialised and deprioritised violence against women and children.
“Meanwhile, back in the firearms command, back in New Scotland Yard, resources are aplenty,” she said.
“The use of their consultancy budgets, their use of contractors. The fact that the guys who hold the firearms get any toy that they want. That sounds brutal but it’s true.
“Meanwhile I have got 25 detective constables struggling to get their specimens sorted in a fridge. It is symbolic of so much about how the Met has gone wrong.
“Right now I don’t have faith and I think many Londoners don’t have faith, that the service to London is good enough. And I think the Met made some choices about that they should regret.”
Speaking on Radio 4, Sir Mark Rowley said he accepts the diagnosis of the damning Casey report, but he will not use the term “institutional”.
The Metropolitan Police chief accepted there was racism, misogyny and homophobia in the force.
However, he said the term “institutional” is political and “means a lot of things to different people”, so he would not use it.
He also spoke about his time as leader of the Met from 2011 to 2018 and his failure to root out people like Couzens.
“You make choices don’t you as a leader,” he said.
“I was spending a lot of time frankly wrestling with ISIS and terrorism. I saw some cultural challenges. I made some changes in the protection world. But clearly they weren’t enough.
“The level of toxicity that Louise calls out, I didn’t see it.”
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said trust in the Metropolitan Police has been “hugely damaged”.
“What we need to do is now make sure that won’t be repeated,” Mr Sunak said, speaking on BBC Breakfast.
“I know the police commissioner is committed to doing that, is committed to making the changes. There are already some changes under way. It’s not just in London. It’s across the country.”
He said changes have also been made to how forces vet new police officers.
“We are currently in the process that all police forces are checking all their police officers again against the police database,” Mr Sunak added.
“And they are all being inspected by the independent inspector of police officers to make sure that’s all happening.”
The findings
The report found that violence against women and girls has not been taken as seriously as other forms of violence.
The review made 16 recommendations and said the changes needed to be made by the Met, the Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime and the Home Office to “create a radically improved new London Metropolitan Police Service”.
The Met failed to protect the public from police officers who abuse women, organisational changes have put women and children at greater risk, and female officers and staff routinely experience sexism, the report said.
There are racist officers and staff in the force and a “deep-seated homophobia” exists in the organisation, it found.
“Despite the Met saying violence against women and girls is a priority, it has been treated differently from 'serious violence',” the report said.
“In practice this has meant it has not been taken as seriously in terms of resourcing and prioritisation.”
The review painted an alarming picture of how crimes against women and children are investigated.
Officers are relying on “overstuffed, dilapidated or broken fridges and freezers” instead of fast-track forensic services, the report said.
“The deprioritisation and despecialisation of public protection has put women and children at greater risk than necessary,” it said.
“Instead of access to fast-track forensic services, officers have to contend with overstuffed, dilapidated or broken fridges and freezers containing evidence including the rape kits of victims, and endure long waits for test results.”
It found that the force's child protection service continues to have “major inadequacies” despite a watchdog issuing the most severely critical report in its history on the issue in 2016.
“The Met's VAWG (violence against women and girls) strategy rings hollow since its claim to be prioritising serious violence has really not included the crimes that most affect women and girls,” the report added.
“Those investigating domestic abuse are also under considerable pressures, with unmanageable caseloads and poor support for victims. This has increased disconnection from Londoners.”
The review said that Londoners had been “put last” with the loss of police commands for each borough, and that the English capital “no longer has a functioning neighbourhood policing service” after the changes.
Baroness Casey accused the Met of a “tick box” approach to the slew of negative reports about its performance in recent years, preferring to put the blame on individual bad apples rather than tackling systemic problems.
It found that there is widespread bullying in the Met, with a fifth of staff with protected characteristics — for example race, sexuality or disability — being victimised.
“Female officers and staff routinely face sexism and misogyny,” the report said.
“The Met has not protected its female employees or members of the public from police perpetrators of domestic abuse, nor those who abuse their position for sexual purposes.”
The report concluded there are “systemic and fundamental problems in how the Met is run” and that the problem with the force is not its size but “inadequate management”.
“The Met is run as a set of disconnected and competing moving parts, lacking clear systems, goals or strategies,” Baroness Casey's report said.
“It runs on a series of uncoordinated and short-lived initiatives, long on activity but short on action.”
The Met's processes “do not effectively root out bad officers, help to tackle mediocre officers, or truly support and develop good officers,” and there are clear signs of high stress among the workforce.
“In the absence of vigilance towards those who intend to abuse the office of constable, predatory and unacceptable behaviour has been allowed to flourish,” said the report.
“There are too many places for people to hide. The integrity of the organisation remains vulnerable to threat.”
The report called for a “complete overhaul” of the Met and a “new approach to restore public trust and confidence”.
