Discrimination, funding, public trust: what Casey says about the Met police

Louise Casey’s review, commissioned successful the aftermath of Sarah Everard’s murder, has laid bare successful much than 300 pages a bid of sedate concerns astir the Metropolitan police’s civilization and standards.

Describing her findings arsenic “rigorous, stark and unsparing”, she said she hoped they would pb to cardinal alteration successful the force.

Discrimination

The study identifies organization homophobia, misogyny and racism successful the Met.

This tin beryllium seen successful mistreatment and maltreatment of LGBT+, female, Black, Asian and number taste officers and unit and unfair outcomes for these groups wrong the organisation arsenic a effect of bias successful processes and systems and successful attitudes and behaviours.

There are unfair outcomes successful communities that effect from underprotection oregon from overpolicing, oregon both, and a civilization of downplaying and denial of favoritism and repeated unwillingness to judge and woody with organization failures that fto down Londoners, it says.

But the Met has lone reluctantly accepted favoritism and has preferred to enactment this down to a number of “bad apples” and to systemic bias, the study adds.

Sexism and misogyny

Sarah Everard’s murder and different horrific crimes perpetrated by serving Met officers against women successful London person shone a airy connected shocking attraction of and attitudes towards women successful the Met, the study says.

Despite improvements successful sex practice and progressively flexible moving practices, women are not treated arsenic successful the workforce, with caller pistillate recruits resigning astatine 4 times the complaint of each probationers.

Homophobia

While the narration betwixt the Met and London’s LGBTQ+ assemblage is vastly antithetic to what it was successful the past century, it has been successful diminution successful caller years, the study says.

Trust successful the Met among LGBTQ+ Londoners has fallen astatine a faster complaint than that among different Londoners implicit the past 7 years and has coincided with disapproval of the Met’s antiaircraft handling of the murders of Anthony Walgate, Gabriel Kovari, Daniel Whitworth and Jack Taylor by Stephen Port.

Racism

The Met’s proportionality of Black, Asian and different number taste officers falls acold abbreviated of the diverseness successful London’s communities, and it is adjacent much unrepresentative astatine higher ranks oregon among women.

At existent recruitment rates it volition instrumentality astatine slightest different 30 years to travel anyplace adjacent adjacent to taste balance, the study adds.

Tackling corrosive and racist myths astir needing to “lower the bar” successful bid to enlistee much diversely, and addressing the racism experienced by officers and unit successful the Met is necessary, the study says.

Two specializer units (specialist firearms MO19 and parliamentary and diplomatic extortion PADP)

The study recovered these 2 specializer units were well-resourced, with elitist attitudes and toxic cultures of bullying, racism, sexism and ableism.

Normal rules bash not look to use successful MO19, with inferior ranking officers and trainers holding disproportionate powerfulness successful their relationships with elder officers due to the fact that of the value of their “blue card” firearms presumption to Met operations.

In parliamentary and diplomatic protection, with which some Wayne Couzens and David Carrick served, the study recovered debased morale, overtime-dependency and a “dark corner” of the Met – successful which 2 of the astir superior constabulary offenders successful British past had worked – wherever “banter” and a bullying civilization were not challenged.

The Met and Londoners

In a increasing and progressively divers city, the Met has tried but failed to guarantee its workforce afloat reflects each the communities it serves, the reappraisal says.

More crimes are being reported but less cleared up, the study says.

In the aforesaid period, nationalist spot and assurance successful the Met has fallen, hitting its lowest ever point, persistently little among Black Londoners but present falling sharply successful communities wherever it has traditionally scored highly.

The Peelian rule of policing by consent is astatine risk, the study warns.

Resources and austerity

The Met has been challenged importantly during a play of fiscal austerity, the study finds.

It has prioritised serviceman numbers, but adjacent these fell beneath 30,000 during the past decade.

Other ratio measures taken person weakened the absorption and person had an interaction connected frontline policing successful the superior and its transportation to Londoners.

Met spending levels are present astir £700m, oregon 18%, little successful existent presumption than they were 10 years ago, the study adds.

Spending connected contracted services much than doubled from £24m successful 2017-18 to £54.5m successful 2021-22.

Spending connected outer consultants, excluding HR, finance, and commercialized services, much than tripled from £10.4m successful 2015-16 to £32.1m successful 2021-22. For the years 2017-18 to 2020-21 it was spending astir £50m each twelvemonth connected consultants.

How the Met is run

The Met’s absorption systems person resulted successful an organisation that is incoherent and unstrategic, the study concludes.

Poorly implemented systems of recruitment, vetting, management, grooming and promotion, with specializer and frontline units competing for resources, let a civilization successful which mediocre performance, behaviours and attitudes tin spell unchallenged.