Allow Exco Player content
This content is provided by Exco Player and may use cookies or similar technologies. Please click 'Allow and Continue' below to load the content.
Home Secretary Suella Braverman has said the Met police faces a “long road to recovery” following the publication of a damning report that found the force is institutionally sexist, racist and homophobic
Speaking to MPs on Tuesday, Ms Braverman said Baroness Louise Casey’s report makes for “very concerning reading”.
“It’s clear that there have been serious failures of culture, leadership, and standards within the Metropolitan Police,” she said.
Baroness Casey’s report, released on Tuesday, denounced a catalogue of failings at Scotland Yard infecting every level of the force.
The landmark report was commissioned in the wake of the kidnap, rape and murder of Sarah Everard.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said the Met must “seize the opportunity to fundamentally change its culture” and called for reform to policing “as a whole”.
Interim director Tom Whiting said: “We will work with police and others to identify how the system can be reformed and what needs to be done to make it happen.”
London Mayor Sadiq Khan said the report was “one of the darkest days” in the history of the almost 200-year-old Met Police service.
Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said the force still had “toxic individuals” but he vowed they were being “rooted out” of the organisation.
“We have racists, misogynists and homophobes in the organisation. We have systemic failings, management failings and cultural failings,” he said, while adding that he was “embarrassed” by the report.
Follow the latest updates below
Full report: Met police force ‘institutionally sexist, racist and homophobic’ Evidence in rape cases was destroyed after fridge broke down Met chief accepts report’s diagnosis but not ‘institutional’ term The shocking cases of racism, sexism and homophobia‘See it. Say it. Ignore it.'
A feminist political party have covered the capital in posters mocking the Metropolitan Police in the wake of Baroness Casey’s report.
They depict a police officer grabbing a woman from behind while other officers laugh with each other under the caption: “See it. Say it. Ignore it” a twist on the British Transport Police slogan “See it. Say it. Sorted”.
The Women’s Equality Party posters appeared at train stations across the capital on Tuesday.
Read what Leader Mandu Reid said about the campaign.
Women’s Equality Party‘This must be a watershed moment’ for Met leadership, IOPC says
The police watchdog has said today’s report “must be a watershed moment for the leadership of the Metropolitan Police”.
IOPC interim Director General Tom Whiting said: “The Met must learn and reflect on Baroness Casey’s stark findings - and seize this opportunity to fundamentally change its culture.
“The Met cannot do this alone. There is a need for fundamental reform to policing as a whole to improve standards, root out wrongdoers, deal with poor performance, and support police officers to be the best they can be.
“At the IOPC, as the police complaints watchdog we will continue to hold policing to account, and use learning from our work to highlight where improvements are needed.”
Mother of murdered black teen says ‘last chance’ for Met
The mother of murdered black teenager Stephen Lawrence has warned “This is the last chance for the Metropolitan Police to get it right”.
Baroness Doreen Lawrence said it has never been a case of a “few bad apples” and the Met is “rotten to the core”.
“Since my son’s death and the recognition of institutional racism by Sir William Macpherson, the force has had almost 30 years to put its house in order. It has not done so, either because it does not want to or it does not know how to.
“I suspect a lot of people will feel, like me, that enough is enough and change is needed. And needed now.”
Read more from Doreen Lawrence here.
Stephen Lawrence (L) and his mother Doreen LawrencePA MediaSexual assault cases not ‘treated properly’, Baroness Casey says
Baroness Louise Casey said she does not have full confidence that the Metropolitan Police would treat a report of rape or sexual assault properly.
Asked if she would report a rape or sexual assault to the Met, she told Times Radio: “So, as a woman, I think it’s absolutely important that when we are assaulted, we always, always make sure it’s recorded.”
Asked if she has confidence the force would treat it properly, she said: “No, I don’t have full confidence that they would treat it properly.
“I know that’s a terrible thing to say, but that’s the biggest thing that they have to change. It still means we should come forward.”
Baroness Louise Casey PA WireThe shocking cases of racism, sexism and homophobia
The Standard looked at some of the key case studies and examples highlighted by Baroness Casey in the 300-page report.
They include gay officers being targeted, people being urinated on in the shower and bacon being left in a Muslim officer’s boots.
Met Police have ‘shattered trust’ and ‘let victims down’, Labour says
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said the abuses of power that have “run rife” in the Met have “shattered the trust” that Britain’s policing relies on.
He said victims have been “let down” as he urged the Home Secretary to “reassure the public” that she will address the failings “immediately”.
Rape cases dropped after freezer with evidence broke
Rape cases being investigated by Met detectives had to be dropped because a freezer holding vital evidence broke down, the report said.
One officer who worked on the Sapphire team, which investigates rape and other sexual offences, told how freezers containing evidence were so packed that it took three officers to shut them.
She claimed that countless rape kits with evidence were spoiled by the way in which they were stored.
ESMet chief: We are ‘rooting out’ the ‘toxic individuals'
Sir Mark Rowley, the head of the Metropolitan Police, said he was “upset, embarrassed and humbled” when reading the report.
“We’ve got toxic individuals”, he added, saying there are “concerns about their predatory behaviour”.
“We’ve got people suspended. We’ve got people under investigation. We are rooting them out of this organisation.”
Read more on his reaction here.
Rishi Sunak says trust in Met Police ‘hugely damaged’
Trust in the Metropolitan Police has been “hugely damaged” by the scandals involving its officers, the Prime Minister said following the release of the report.
Rishi Sunak told BBC Breakfast: “I want both my daughters to grow up in a society which not only do they have real trust in the police, it’s just fundamentally safe.
“It’s not just in London, across the country we’ve changed the guidance for police forces, for how they vet new police officers.
“Those are all things that will help give people confidence.”
Read more of the Prime Minister’s response here.
Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley with Rishi SunakMetropolitan Police What does the report say?
Baroness Dame Louise Casey found the Met to be riddled with bullying and poor leadership in the most damning report in the force’s history.
She warned that problems are so severe that there could be other officers as bad as Sarah Everard‘s killer Wayne Couzens, and his serial rapist colleague David Carrick, still within the Met’s ranks.
She highlighted incidents including dildos being put in coffee mugs, bags of urine thrown at cars, and ethnic minority officers being ridiculed and talked down to as examples of misconduct within the Met.
Rape victims were also being failed with forensic samples taken from them stored in fridges so full that three officers were required to close them and the evidence being ruined through contamination.
Read more about the report’s findings here.
ESLatest updatesOlder updates