Report finds London Metropolitan Police Service homophobic, racist and sexist
As an institution, London's Metropolitan Police Service is homophobic, misogynist and racist. Those are the findings of an independent investigation according to which police in the UK capital have let down children and women whom they are meant to protect, proved incapable of addressing accusations against their own members' misconduct, and need significant reform.
The report was commissioned in 2021 by the then-Chief of Police, Cressida Dick, in response to the abduction, rape and murder of Sarah Everard. Wayne Couzens, a police officer, committed those crimes and abused his power as a public official to kidnap the young woman.
That case and other crimes committed against women by police officers shook the UK to the core and drew attention to the internal culture of the police. The investigation, led by Baroness Louise Casey, found “serious” wrongdoing across the police force.
The London Metropolitan Police, according to the 360-page document, is in need of “radical reform”. Among the recommendations is a new child protection strategy and the establishment of protection services for women.
“Both inside the organization with regard to how employees and officers are handled, and outside the organization with regard to providing security to communities, what dominates is institutional racism, sexism and homophobia,” reads the report, which also found that police officers have “let down women and children.” The report also describes despicable “pranks” at police stations, such as “throwing bags of urine at cars”, “male police officers spanking each other in the genitals”, “putting vibrators in coffee cups” or “welcome rituals that included urinating on a person in the shower”.
The biggest problem when it comes to correcting these deficiencies, according to the investigation, is the custom among the police to protect their members and deny the extent of the difficulties. “Any way you look at it, […] the evidence is absolutely clear. Is this institution biased and discriminatory? Yes, it is,” Casey told journalists prior to the report’s publication.
Londoners have received an apology from the current Chief of the Metropolitan Police, Mark Rowley. “This is awful. When you sit down and read the report, it will spark many emotions. It will provoke anger, frustration, shame,” Rowley said.
According to the current chief, the London Metropolitan Police has strengthened its Department of Professional Principles and officers are being fired en masse. However, the job is far from finished.
“I can’t say we’ve reduced the risk of bad police officers to zero, but every day we’re discussing this with people and making progress,” Reuters reported Rowley as saying when asked whether officers accused of crimes such as domestic violence, murder or rape are still serving on the force. In response to the report, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told the BBC that “trust in the police has suffered significantly.”
British Home Secretary Suella Braverman responded to Casey’s report by giving a speech in the lower house. She said she “appreciates police officers who place the safety of others above their own.”
“I’m on their side. However, it’s important that those who should not be wearing the uniform do not,” Braverman said.
That statement was criticized by the Labour Shadow Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper. In her view, Braverman has no plan for change.
“She just says something ‘has to change’. I call on her to promise that people with records of domestic or sexual violence will no longer make it onto the police force,” Cooper said.
Braverman did not respond to that challenge. The conclusions of the report were published more than 20 years after the investigation of the murder of a Black teenager, Stephen Lawrence, in 1999 revealed there was institutional racism in the London Metropolitan Police Service, Reuters reports.
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