AFTER MET IS BRANDED RACIST, SEXIST, HOMOPHOBIC: LONDON DESERVES BETTER

AUTHOR OF DAMNING REPORT TELLS STANDARD TIME FOR CHANGE IS NOW PM AND MAYOR CONDEMN FAILINGS AS FORCE WARNED IT COULD BE BROKEN UP

- Martin Bentham

THE Met must reform to root out bigotry and other catastrophic failings that have left it rotten and broken because Londoners deserve better, the author of the most damning report in the force’s history said today.

Baroness Casey said it was “rapidly losing the permission of Londoners to police them” because of its failure to “keep out, or root out wrongdoers”, its inability to protect women and children, and its withdrawal from frontline policing.

She said it was “riven with racism, sexism and homophobia, in the way it treats its staff and the way it polices Londoners” and the principle of policing by consent was at risk of being destroyed unless radical change was implemented. Baroness Casey said this included apologising with humility for past mistakes, improving its accountability and restoring frontline policing, including in relation to the protection of women and children, as well as doing “much more” to improve diversity in its ranks.

“London deserves a better Met,” Baroness Casey said in an article for the Evening Standard. “The many great Met officers deserve a better Met. The Met cannot be in denial now. My report makes clear what its problems are and what needs to change. This is the moment for the Met to take action.”