Met Police study report: Found ‘systemic’ racism, misogyny, and homophobia in the force

• Aparna Sreevalsan
• 17 October, 2022

 

• Baroness Louise Casey’s study which found “systemic” racism and misogyny in the Met, uncovered grave flaws in how Britain’s largest force investigates crimes.
• Chief admits racist, misogynist, and corrupt officers remain in the force.
• One serving officer has been issued 11 misconduct notices due to charges of sexual harassment, assault, and fraud.

 

METROPOLITAN Police officers are getting away with breaching the law and engaging in misconduct, reveals a new shocking report.

Baroness Louise Casey, the report’s author, discovered that several allegations of sexual misbehaviour, sexism, racism, and homophobia were handled improperly.

Sir Mark Rowley, the new Metropolitan Police Commissioner, admits that hundreds of Met police have been getting away with breaking the law and misconduct.

Rowley says he is horrified by the revelations and apologises to everyone who has been “let down”.

The study began in early 2022 under the former Commissioner  Dame Cressida Dick and will end in 2023.

Baroness Casey informed Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley regarding the study and submitted him an interim report today (17).

According to him, there are hundreds of officers in the Met who should be fired, and the number of officers and staff cut down annually-between 30 and 50- is “massively under-engineered”.

“You have to come to the conclusion there must be hundreds of people that shouldn’t be here, who should be thrown out,” Rowley said. “There must be hundreds who are behaving disgracefully, undermining our integrity and need ejecting.”

One serving officer has been issued 11 misconduct notices due to charges of sexual harassment, assault, and fraud.

Rowley stated that he may not yet have the authority to dismiss him and that he plans to approach the government for the authority to revisit old cases.

In contrast to their white counterparts, who were in fact protected by a flawed system, black officers were 81 per cent more likely to face disciplinary action and new ethnic recruits were almost 120 per cent more likely to be dismissed.

Other findings were:

• About 55 per cent to 60 per cent of allegations made by Met officers, staff or their families receive a no case-to-answer decision, higher than in other forces.
• For discrimination allegations, less than three in 10 are upheld, and the same for sexual assault and sexual harassment claims against colleagues.
• Supervisors are putting officers and staff off from raising concerns.
• Since 2013, 1,809 officers and staff had more than one allegation against them and only 13 (0.71 per cent) had been dismissed.
• Many misconduct cases are dealt with by overstretched local units without proper training.
• Local surveys of officers in 2021 found between 22 per cent to 47 per cent had experienced unwanted sexual advances or touching, sexism and misogyny.

Rowley, who was appointed last month – claimed the findings of the investigation demonstrated “patterns of unacceptable discrimination that clearly amount to systemic bias” targeting black and Asian officers and personnel.

Rowley said that after reading the study and talking to female and ethnic minority personnel about their experiences, he broke down in tears. The findings are among the worst that any police department has ever experienced. The study, he continued, demonstrated how “weak” the Met had been in confronting misconduct among its ranks.

Baroness Casey said: “This leaves many officers and staff in the Met to conclude that discriminatory behaviour is in fact not a breach of professional standards and adds to the sense that ‘anything goes’.”

Following the kidnapping, rape, and murder of Sarah Everard, Baroness Louise Casey was asked to write an interim report by serving Met PC Wayne Couzens.