Baroness Louise Casey’s review of culture and standards in the Metropolitan Police highlights serious and shameful issues, police have admitted. Baroness Casey has published interim findings and written to Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley.
In brief, she wrote that the Met’s misconduct system ‘is not delivering in a way that you [Sir Mark Rowley], I, your officers or the public would expect it to. Cases are taking too long to resolve, allegations are more likely to be dismissed than acted upon, the burden on those raising concerns is too heavy, and there is racial disparity across the system, with white officers dealt with less harshly than black or Asian officers’.
On average, a Met misconduct allegation case takes 400 days from start to finish. She has found that officers and staff do not believe that action will be taken when concerns around conduct are raised, and ‘they are right not to do so’. Among several other findings, regulation 13 (which allows for the removal of probationers) is not being used to remove enough of those officers who should not be in policing, she wrote.
She noted further that these issues are not new (her data covered from 2013 to 2022); and ‘some improvements will rely on overall regulatory changes that affect policing nationally and not just the Met’. She pointed also to the decline in dismissals for gross misconduct. She called for ‘radical and wholesale reform’.
In a same-day reply, Sir Mark wrote that he was appalled by the findings, and accepted her conclusions in full.
Meanwhile the Home Office has said it will launch an internal review, shortly, into police dismissals. Home Secretary Suella Braverman said: “The public rightly expects the highest standards of behaviour from police officers and the vast majority meet this expectation. But recently too many high-profile incidents and reports, especially in London, have damaged trust – which is unfair on the public and lets down other serving officers.”
Comments
At the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) chair Martin Hewitt said: “Misogyny, racism, homophobia, abuse and misconduct betray our code of ethics, the public and the good majority in policing – they must be driven out. Chief constables will be closely studying this review and subsequent action by the Met, assuring themselves they are using every lever they have to the fullest to remove those who undermine standards and integrity.
“We support the Home Secretary’s intention to review the wider misconduct system so that the guilty are removed and the innocent exonerated as quickly as possible.”
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said it was clear the Met’s misconduct system is simply not fit for purpose. “The majority of those serving in the Met will be appalled by these latest findings and the decent officers who want to speak out – who have clearly been let down for far too long – must be properly supported.”
In its response, the watchdog the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) noted that in June, following a joint investigation – alongside the College of Policing and His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services – into a super-complaint by the Centre for Women’s Justice, all chief constables were urged to act on findings that forces needed to improve on how they internally respond to domestic abuse allegations against officers and staff.
About the review
The Casey review began earlier this year under Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick who has since resigned. The review and that resignation came after scandals arising from the murder of Sarah Everard by a Met Police man, and findings by the IOPC of misogyny, discrimination and sexual harassment in a police unit based at Charing Cross police station in central London.
