London’s discredited police must act on review findings and rebuild public trust

Professionalism, integrity, courage, compassion. These are the values that London’s Metropolitan police says underpins its work. It claims its vision is to be the most trusted force in the world.

Those lofty statements appear ludicrous when set against the findings of Louise Casey’s independent review into behaviour and culture at the Met, published last week. She was commissioned to undertake the review in the wake of the abduction, rape and murder of Sarah Everard by a serving Met firearms officer, who used his warrant card as a tool to commit his abhorrent crimes. Her findings are shocking and unequivocal, yet unsurprising to anyone who has followed scandal after scandal in recent years. Almost 25 years on from the Macpherson report that found the Met was institutionally racist, Casey is clear that it remains so and is also institutionally misogynistic and homophobic.

The Met is the UK’s largest police force, responsible for the UK capital and for counterterrorist policing nationwide. It developed the philosophy of policing by consent, copied globally: the idea its authority derives through cooperation with a public that trusts it to use its powers responsibly.

Casey’s review outlines how far the Met has strayed from this. The fact a serving officer could use the trust his position conferred in order to abduct, rape and murder is the sign of a rotten organisation riven with toxic cultures. Casey paints a grim picture: officers are openly racially abused by colleagues, and black officers are 81% more likely to be subject to disciplinary action. Gay and lesbian officers have been targeted through sustained campaigns of homophobic abuse. Female officers who have been repeatedly subject to sexual assaults by colleagues were labelled as troublemakers when they tried to complain.

Without constant vigilance from police leaders, toxic cultures will spread, undermining decent officers’ work and eroding public trust.

The Met’s leadership has failed to understand this dynamic. The review found vetting procedures are inadequate and cannot identify individuals whom it might be dangerous for the force to employ. Misconduct and complaints processes are dysfunctional, which means red flags about officers’ behaviour are repeatedly missed. But there is a custom of total denial in the Met’s senior ranks: Casey says former commissioner Cressida Dick, still in post in the first stages of her review, seemed to expect a clean bill of health.

Reforming the Met and rebuilding public trust will be an immense undertaking. Casey is confident its new commissioner, Mark Rowley, can lead this work. But she is correct that it is very disappointing that he chose to quibble with the term “institutional racism” and four tests of institutional racism her review outlined. The review cannot be shelved by a complacent leadership, as has happened in the past. The Met must earn back trust or be broken up