Last chance for the police to restore decency and sense

DAME Louise Casey's 300-page review of the Metropolitan Police is being heralded as a damning document. It used to be a cliché to regard British police as "the best in the world". But such has been the collapse in esteem for the police generally, and the Met in particular, that the shock would have been if Dame Louise had given the force a clean bill of health.

- Stephen Pollard

The Met has become a byword for everything bad about policing today. When we see an officer now, we almost expect them to be corrupt, racist, misogynist or a sex offender. The vast majority, of course, are decent and committed. But that's the problem when poison is allowed to fester.

In that context, Dame Louise's report has been seen as the "last chance saloon" for the Met. But it's difficult to see how things have not already passed that point.

Sir Mark Rowley, the Met's Commissioner, in post since September, is clearly an honourable and able man committed to restoring the reputation of his force. But not only is he faced with the management equivalent of pushing uphill water that has already formed a river, he must do this when policing itself has lost its way.

LOOK at the statistics. Yesterday, emerged for example, it that 150 Met officers accused of sexual violence or domestic abuse are now working, without any restrictions.

Meanwhile, 548 Met officers are being investigated over alleged sexual wrongdoing or domestic violence. And that's all since we learned of the sickening text messages commonplace in some stations.