Uniform reform

The headlines all told the same story. "Damning verdict on the Met - MisogynistA person or being who dislikes and is prejudiced against women. , homophobicShowing a dislike for gay people. and racist," declared Metro. "Condemned! Public's loss of faith in the police," shouted the Daily Express. "Broken and rotten," trumpeted the Daily Mail. It was not the start to the day that Metropolitan PoliceThe name of London's police force. commissioner Mark Rowley was hoping for.

The tide of indignation had been released by Louise CaseyA member of the UK House of Lords and a government official working in social welfare. 's report into the culture and standards of the Met. It was commissioned after the rape and murder of Sarah EverardA woman from London who was abducted and murdered by a police officer in 2021, sparking public outrage in Britain. by PC Wayne Couzens in 2021. "I have been appalled by what I found," she wrote.

Casey concluded that even after Everard's murder the Met continued to neglect the protection of women and children. Failing to respond to the crime, she said, was like ignoring a plane crash.

When a campaign was launched to encourage officers to report rogueDishonest, unprincipled or acting without the permission of the group. colleagues, some warned each other to delete WhatsApp messages.

Evidence in rape cases was sometimes unusable because it had been stored in broken fridges. The department was left short of resources while armed police wasted money on unnecessary equipment.

A third of female officers said they had experienced sexism, and 12% had suffered sexual harassment and assault. A gay officer who had been bullied said: "I am scared of the police. I don't trust my own organisation."

New recruits were forced to undergo humiliating initiation rites, such as eating whole cheesecakes until they vomited.

A Sikh officer had his beard trimmed because a colleague thought it was funny, while a Muslim officer found bacon left in his boots. White officers are only 19% as likely as Black officers to face disciplinary action.

At the present rate of recruitment, it will take the Met 38 years to reach its target of 46% of its officers from ethnic minorities, reflecting London's racial mix. Baroness Casey said that it was guilty of institutional racism, and made excessive use of force and stop-and-search powers against Black people.

A survey¹ found that public confidence in the force to do a good job for the city fell from 74% to 36% between 2017 and 2022. Casey concluded that the Met "can now no longer presume that it has the permission of the people of London to police them".

She was referring to the "Peelian principle" of policing, named after the founder of the Met, Sir Robert PeelA 19th Century British prime minister, and founder of London's Metropolitan Police., who had to convince people that the force was a good idea. The historian Charles Reith described it as "unique in history and throughout the world, because it derived, not from fear, but almost exclusively from public co-operation with the police".

This was based on "behaviour which secures and maintains for them the approval, respect and affection of the public".

But the problems are not confined to the Met. The shadow home secretaryThe home secretary is the person in charge of immigration, law and order in the UK. The shadow home secretary is the person from the opposition party chosen to scrutinise them and say what they would do instead. , Yvette Cooper, said the failure to root out officers accused of domestic abuse and sexual assault also applied to forces in Gwent, Hampshire, Scotland, Sussex, Leicestershire and elsewhere.

Yes: There are plenty of police officers who do their work conscientiously and are not guilty of the misdemeanours listed in the report. Mark Rowley can save the Met by bringing them to the fore.

No: Misogyny, homophobia and racism are "baked in" to the Met according to the report, and that is probably true of many forces. Police officers tend to be machoMasculine in an overly assertive or aggressive way. Usually used today in a mocking or condescending way to describe people who think that being tough is all that matters. types who enjoy pushing others around.

Or...  Only if the Met is completely overhauled by experts from outside the force - past experience shows that it cannot be trusted to put itself right. Failing that it should be broken up.