Baroness Casey’s review on the culture and standards of the Met was published today, revealing the organisation to be racist, sexist and homophobic.
Casey said: “Systems support wrongdoers. Complainants are not believed. Staff Associations and Independent Advisory Groups feel ignored. A bullying culture underpins all this. Racist, misogynist, homophobic and other discriminatory acts are tolerated, ignored, or dismissed as ‘banter’.”
The review was commissioned after the abduction, rape and murder of Sarah Everard in March 2021 by a serving Met officer Wayne Couzens, and Baroness Casey stated in the report: “But I do want to begin this report by remembering Sarah, thinking of all those who have suffered as a result of Met officers’ crimes, and paying tribute to those who have fought for justice on their behalves.”
Casey also pointed out the case of serial rapist and former Met officer David Carrick, who was told by Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb during the sentence hearing: “You behaved as if you were untouchable.
“The malign influence of men like you in positions of power stands in the way of a revolution of women’s dignity.”
In the foreword of the report, Casey said of that case: “The lifespan of this Review has been bookended by that tragedy and another avoidable and abhorrent case when, only two months ago, another serving Met officer, who also exploited his position, was convicted as one of the country’s most prolific sexual offenders.
“None of this should have happened. Enough was known about both men to have stopped them so much earlier.”
“There are systemic and fundamental problems”
First, there are systemic and fundamental problems in how the Met is run, according to Baroness Casey. The size of the Met, lack of workforce plan, poor recruitment and vetting systems, poor people management, high stress and pressure among officers, outsourced human resources being too distant from local policing needs, lack of diversity with largely white and male representation are among those fundamental problems listed by Casey.
In the report Casey said: “The Met has not managed the integrity of its own police service.”
She referred to “heinous crimes perpetrated by serving Met officers” and added: “Policing will attract those who wish to abuse powers conferred by a warrant card. The Met has not taken this fact seriously.
“Its vetting processes are not vigilant in identifying clear warning signs such as previous indecent exposure or domestic abuse from applicant officers. Transferees from other forces are trusted to be good enough. Periodic re-vetting has been perfunctory, and self-declarations are relied upon.”
“In the absence of vigilance towards those who intend to abuse the office of constable, predatory and unacceptable behaviour has been allowed to flourish. There are too many places for people to hide. The integrity of the organisation remains vulnerable to threat.”
“Too much hubris and too little humility”
Casey recorded how “we know best” attitude prevailing in the organisation makes the Met dismiss external views and criticisms and creates “a serious weakness” by preventing them “bringing in external help, co-opting experts and stakeholders to provide support and challenge.”
The Met’s inability of easily accepting criticism or own its failures creates a culture of denial, in which existing issues such as “systemic racial bias in the misconduct system, poor child protection services, not recognising predatory behaviour, the dire state of property storage” have been known about but they are not addressed sufficiently.
This hubris, according to Casey, led the Met to prefer “to pretend that their own perpetrators of unconscionable crimes were just ‘bad apples’, or not police officers at all.”
“The Met is in danger of losing its way – consent is broken”
Casey pointed out how the Met has become less effective and less trusted in numbers: “Public trust has fallen from a high point of 89% in 2016 to a low of 66% in March 2022.
“Public confidence in the Met to do a good job locally has fallen from high points of 70% in 2016 and 2017 to a low of 45% in March 2022.
“People from Black and mixed ethnic groups have lower trust and confidence in the Met, scoring 10 to 20% lower than average on trust and 5 to 10% lower on confidence, although declining scores among White Londoners mean that gap is closing.”
In the 363-page report, Baroness Casey stated: “We give the police exceptional powers and we trust them to use them are in responsibly. That is how policing by consent works. It’s a deal: a deal that we now need to restore in London. The police want to earn our trust. And we want to trust the police.”
How to fix the Met?
In the review, Casey said that she is fundamentally pro-police: “I have personal reasons to be thankful to them. Policing attracts the best of humanity.
“But policing needs to accept that the job can also attract predators and bullies those who want power over their fellow citizens, and to use those powers to cause harm and discriminate.
“All of British policing needs to be alive to this very serious risk.
“It needs to keep them out when they try to get in, to root them out where they exist, and to guard against the corrosive effects that their actions have on trust, confidence and the fundamental Peelian principles of policing by consent.”
And the police forces are not fully alive to that risk nor the Met fully understands the gravity of its situation as a whole, according to Casey.
Baroness Casey also said that the Met’s new leadership represent a welcome change of tone and approach as she reminds the need to “clean up the Met” by:
– Reforming the misconduct process,
– Embedding and enforcing the highest policing ethical values and standards across all of its systems and management,
– Changing vetting standards,
– Effectively disbanding Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection (PaDP) and Specialist Firearms (MO19) Commands which have been found by the Review to have the worst cultures, behaviours and practices,
– Revoking unequivocally and permanently firearms qualifications or ‘blue cards’ where any officer’s values and standards fall short of public expectations,
– Installing new, external management to oversee the Specialist Training Centre to immediately address issues with its culture and standards,
– Providing Chief Constables the right to appeal to a Police Appeals Tribunal following a misconduct hearing when they conclude the sanction is inadequate,
– Enabling the Met and other forces with clear legal power to reopen closed misconduct investigations,
– Changing police regulations to ensure that failure to maintain or achieve vetting status is grounds for removal,
– Introducing a managed severance process to allow officers to exit from the service and ensure that the service has the skills it needs,
– Strengthening the pension forfeiture rules so that a criminal offence does not have to only be committed ‘in connection’ with an officer’s service in order for them to lose their pension.
More protection is needed for women and children
In addition to the above recommendations, Casey also pointed out the need for a dedicated women’s protection service as the Review found that women and children do not get the protection and support they deserve.
Casey recommended that the Met should radically reform and re-specialise Public Protection Teams, including the establishment of new Specialist ‘Soteria’ teams to deal with rape and serious sexual offences.
Domestic abuse service should also specialise, according to Casey, to create more victim-centred approaches and to work more closely and in a more integrated way with non-police specialist domestic abuse services: “These teams should be reinvigorated and properly resourced,” the report said.
“Together this should be a new and significantly enhanced offer to women in London.”
Another need for the Met is to create an overarching children’s safety strategy for London with the purposes of:
– Addressing the Met’s approach to children and young people who are suspected of crimes, and its approach to protecting children and young people who are both victims and perpetrators, for example, through criminal and sexual exploitation and grooming,
– Providing training for all officers who work with children to prevent ‘adultification’, where police officers and other regard children, especially Black and ethnic minority children, as threats rather than children who need protection from harm.
Building trust to restore consent
Casey said: “The Met has yet to free itself of institutional racism.
“Public consent is broken.
“The Met has become unanchored from the Peelian principle of policing by consent set out when it was established.”
Casey recommended the following to restore consent:
– The Met should be reformed so that the Peelian principles of policing by consent – securing and maintaining the respect and approval of public – are its guiding principles,
– The Met should introduce a new process with Londoners to apologise for past failings and rebuild consent, particularly with communities where this is most at risk,
– The Met should establish a charter with Londoners on how and when stop and search is used, with an agreed rationale, provide annual account of its use by area, and by team undertaking stope and searches,
– The Met should build a frontline policing service for London which is as revered and well-resources as its central specialist teams,
– BCU Commanders in the Met should be empowered to account for, and explain with candour and transparency, the actions that are taken in their Borough, including those of the central, specialist units such as TSG and VCTF,
– The Met should recognise trauma and desensitisation in its officers as a corporate responsibility and provide trauma training for Public Protection and Response officers as a priority, making access to counselling and other services easy,
– A new borough based approach should be put in place, building on the positive introduction of new dedicated Borough Superintendents, to ensure structures allow for greater transparency and challenge, including democratic representatives through local authorities.
Casey also pointed out the lack of accountability and transparency in the Met. As such, she recommended a new governance structure that would oversee and scrutinise the changes needed and ensure full transparency and accountability to Londoners, while maintaining the operational independence of the Commissioner.
Casey concluded the recommendations by stating that Londoners need to see that reform is working, so she recommended that the Met and the Mayor of London should commission independent progress reviews after two years, and again after five years, including key measures to test these reforms.
Casey stated: “If sufficient progress is not being made at the points of further review, more radical, structural options, such as dividing up the Met into national, specialist and London responsibilities, should be considered to ensure the service to Londoners is prioritised.”
(Source: Metropolitan Police)
