Broken and rotten: Devastating review says Met Police is ‘institutionally racist, corrupt, misogynistic and homophobic’ amid fears there may be many more officers like Wayne Couzens and David Carrick as force is told it must reform or be ‘overhauled’
- The damning report found racism, corruption, misogyny and homophobia
- Baroness Casey, who spent a year on report, said there was a ‘rot’ at its heart
- Concluded Met cannot be trusted to police itself in wake of predatory officers
Scotland Yard is ‘broken’ and its ‘rotten’ ranks are riven with racism, misogyny and homophobia, a shock review says today.
The Met cannot be trusted to police itself and may harbour many more predatory officers like Sarah Everard’s killer Wayne Couzens and serial rapist David Carrick, it concludes.
In the most damning report in its near 200-year history, the force is described as institutionally racist and corrupt as well as misogynistic and homophobic.
Baroness Casey, who spent a year examining the Yard’s culture and practices, said there was a ‘rot’ at its heart that allowed racism to go unchallenged and predatory behaviour to ‘flourish’.
She said successive Met commissioners had ‘failed to ensure the integrity of its officers and the organisation’.
Scotland Yard is ‘broken’ and its ‘rotten’ ranks are riven with racism, misogyny and homophobia, a shock review led by Baroness Louise Casey (pictured) says today
Baroness Casey, who spent a year examining the Yard’s culture and practices, said there was a ‘rot’ at its heart that allowed racism to go unchallenged and predatory behaviour to ‘flourish’
She demanded a ‘complete overhaul’ of the £4billion service, saying anything less would be ‘clutching at straws’. But new commissioner Sir Mark Rowley immediately provoked a row by rejecting the label that the Met was guilty of ‘institutional’ racism, misogyny and homophobia, saying it was ‘politicised and ambiguous’.
In the devastating independent report, commissioned after Ms Everard’s murder, Baroness Casey concludes:
- The Met has failed to protect the public from officers who abuse women;
- Investigative failures and organisational changes have put women and children at greater risk;
- Rape cases are being dropped due to evidence being ruined in broken fridges;
- Officers are rushing to drop cases to deal with overwhelming workloads;
- Neighbourhood policing has been eroded by pressures on the front line;
- Officers use an ‘eyewatering amount of force’ on suspects;
- There is widespread bullying at the Yard, with a fifth of staff being victimised.
Baroness Casey said the murder of Ms Everard by serving firearms officer Wanye Couzens (pictured) should have been like a ‘plane falling out of the sky’ for Scotland Yard
The devastating independent report was commissioned after the murder of Sarah Everard (pictured)
Serial rapist David Carrick was jailed for life with a minimum term of 32 years after carrying out a ‘catalogue of violent and brutal’ sex attacks between 2003 and 2020 against at least a dozen women.
The peer said the murder of Ms Everard by serving firearms officer Couzens should have been like a ‘plane falling out of the sky’ for Scotland Yard.
But instead it ‘preferred to pretend that their own perpetrators of unconscionable crimes were just ‘bad apples’, or not police officers at all’.
Baroness Casey warned there was nothing to stop other rapists in the ranks, adding: ‘In the absence of vigilance toward 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.’
Characterising a culture of ‘blindness, arrogance and prejudice’, her report identified failings across nearly all departments, which have been ignored due to a ‘culture of denial and defensiveness’.
In conclusion, Baroness Casey said the force had lost public trust and become ‘unanchored’ from the founding principles established by Robert Peel in 1829.
‘The Met is in danger of losing its way – consent is broken,’ she said. ‘Too often, the Met seems to act in its own self interest rather than the interests of the public it serves.’
Her report found ‘widespread bullying’ in the ranks, a ‘deep-seated homophobia’, and ‘systemic racial bias’ so prevalent it was considered ‘not worth reporting’ by some officers.
The finding that the force is institutionally racist echoes that of the Macpherson Inquiry in 1999, which took place after the murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence and abject failures in that investigation.
New commissioner Sir Mark Rowley (pictured) immediately provoked a row by rejecting the label that the Met was guilty of ‘institutional’ racism, misogyny and homophobia, saying it was ‘politicised and ambiguous’
Home Secretary Suella Braverman (pictured) said ‘it is clear that there have been serious failures of culture and leadership’
She added: ‘It is rot when you treat Londoners in a racist and unacceptable fashion. That is rotten. That goes back over a long period of time.’
Her 363-page report found violence against women and girls had not been taken as seriously as other forms of violence. Baroness Casey made 16 recommendations for change, saying the force should be broken up if it did not reform.
Her recommendations include disbanding the Met’s Diplomatic and Parliamentary Protection Unit, to which both Couzens and Carrick belonged. Sir Mark admitted the Met had ‘let people down’ but he promised ‘radical reform’.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan said: ‘The evidence is damning. Baroness Casey has found institutional racism, misogyny and homophobia, which I accept.’
Home Secretary Suella Braverman added: ‘It is clear that there have been serious failures of culture and leadership.’
Ken Marsh, chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation, said the report would just dishearten police officers, adding that they were already ‘on their knees’.
Source: Read Full Article
