H-Metro
LONDON. – Women and children have been failed by the Metropolitan Police, with racism, misogyny, and homophobia at the heart of the force, a blistering review says.
Baroness Casey says a “boys’ club” culture is rife and the force could be dismantled if it does not improve.
Her year-long review condemns systemic failures, painting a picture of a force where rape cases were dropped because a freezer containing key evidence broke.
The Met’s Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley admitted “we have let Londoners down”.
Barone ss Casey was appointed to review the forrce’s culture and standards, after the abduction, rape and murder of Sarah Everard by serving police officer Wayne Couzens, in 2021.
During the course of her review, another Met officer, David Carrick, was convicted of a series of rapes, sexual offences and torture of women.
The 363-page report condemns the force as institutionally racist, misogynist and homophobic.
Staff routinely experience sexism, it adds.
There are racist officers and staff, and a “deep-seated homophobia” in the organisation.
But Sir Mark told Radio 4’s Today programme that while he accepted the “diagnosis” of the report he would not use the expression “institutional racism”, describing it as ambiguous and politicised.
The report says the force, the biggest in the UK, has failed to protect the public from officers who abuse women and Baroness Casey said she could not rule out more officers like Couzens and Carrick being in the Met.
While domestic abuse cases have doubled in 10 years, the teams tasked with tackling the problem are understaffed, overworked and inexperienced.
The Met has not made its publicly-stated policy to crack down on abusers an “operational reality”, the report found.
The report also reveals:
◆ Dilapidated fridges were repeatedly found overpacked and how, during last summer’s heatwave, a freezer broke down – all of the evidence inside had to be destroyed, meaning cases of alleged rape were dropped
◆ Discrimination towards female colleagues; bags of urine being thrown at cars; male officers flicking each other’s genitals; and sex toys being placed in coffee mugs
◆ Initiation rituals included people being urinated on in the shower
◆ One Sikh officer had his beard trimmed; while another had his turban put in a shoe box; and a Muslim officer found bacon in his boots
◆ Almost one in five of Met employees surveyed had personally experienced homophobia
Baroness Casey said austerity had “disfigured” the Met, and other pressures like court backlogs and London’s expanding population have put the force under further strain.
But she said not enough had changed since the 1999 Macpherson report, published after the murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence, which labelled the Met “institutionally racist”.
“That’s not on Cressida Dick,” Baroness Casey told reporters – acknowledging Sir Mark’s predecessor as the force’s commissioner, who resigned last year. – BBC.
