The London Metropolitan Police (Met), the UK’s top law enforcement agency, is institutionally racist, misogynistic and homophobic, according to a devastating independent report released Tuesday.
The document, in charge of the official Louise Casey, was commissioned in 2021 as a result of the case of Sarah Everard, the young British woman who was kidnapped, raped and murdered by Met agent Wayne Couzens in March 2021.
According to the 363-page report, there are racist officers and “deeply rooted homophobia” in the organization, while it is not ruled out that there are more policemen like Couzens. The person in charge of the investigation considers that this force should even be dismantled if the situation does not improve.
The City of London no longer has “a functioning neighborhood watch service” while the problems are particularly acute for ethnic minorities, according to the report.
“It is not our job as citizens to keep us safe from the police. The job of the police is to keep us safe. Too many Londoners have lost faith in the police,” Casey said in the document.
The report found that violence against women and girls has not been taken as seriously as other forms of violence and that bullying is widespread across the body.
“Female officers and staff routinely face sexism and misogyny. The Met has failed to protect its employees or members of the public from police perpetrators of domestic abuse, or those who abuse their position for sexual purposes,” it says.
Even though the Met says violence against women and girls is a priority, it has been treated differently than more aggressive forms of violence, it adds.
“In practice, this means that it hasn’t been taken as seriously in terms of resource allocation,” he says.
Since this investigation was launched, the case of agent David Carrick, convicted of a series of rapes, sexual assaults and torture of women, also came to light.
The Met’s chief curator, Mark Rowley, said he accepts the result of this in-depth investigation, but not the term institutionalized because it has a political connotation.
“It’s terrifying. You sit down and read that report and it triggers a whole range of emotions. It triggers anger, frustration, shame,” he admitted.
After the report came to light, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told the BBC today that confidence in the Met has been “hugely damaged”, but stressed that changes are already underway.
“I know the Police Commissioner is committed to doing that, he is committed to making the changes. There are already some changes underway at the moment. All police forces are checking all their officers back into the database,” he added.
“Dark day”
For his part, the mayor of London, Labor Sadiq Khan, told the BBC that today is “one of the darkest days in the history of our Metropolitan Police service.”
“If the public doesn’t have trust in the police, they’re not going to come forward and report a crime. They’re not going to come forward and witness a crime to ensure there’s a prosecution, they’re not going to come forward to join the police,” he added.
“So it’s in everyone’s interest to make sure that the police service changes,” said Khan, who last year forced the resignation of then-commissioner Cressida Dick by withdrawing confidence from her over the lack of measures to tackle machismo and racism in the police force. force.
