Britain’s top police force no longer has the trust of the general public and needs major reform, a review of the organisation has found.
An investigation into the state of the London Metropolitan Police (Met) has found that the force no longer has the support and trust of the general public.
It comes shortly after one member of the force was convicted as a serial rapist and sexual abuser, being said to have frequently used his position inside the force as a way to abuse women.
According to the review published on Tuesday, the Met police force is no longer providing the services it is meant to, with a combination of financial cuts and complacency resulting in a serious deterioration in frontline law enforcement.
“London no longer has a functioning neighbourhood policing service,” the report explained, adding that women and children in particular have been poorly served by the force, and left in danger as a result.
The police are in “denial” about the problems they face and have institutional roadblocks to improvement including “hubris” — believing only they really understand what it takes to police London, and therefore refusing to take external criticism or help — and “optimism” manifesting itself as glossing over issues. Protecting the reputation of the force is seen as more important than actually having a good police force, Casey says.
As well as these failures, the report also zeroes in on accusations of systematic racism, sexism, and homophobia. The fact that black officers are considerably more likely to face disciplinary procedures than white officers, and that black Londoners are more likely to have an interaction with the police than white, are both identified as evidence of racism within the force.
Nevertheless, while black Londoners are more likely to have a negative view of the force than their white neighbours, the report found this trust gap was rapidly closing as trust in the police to do a good job was falling among white Londoners.
Overall, the report reckons that overall confidence in the force has now dropped below the 50 per cent mark, with it ultimately expressing doubt as to whether the Met can still operate a model of “policing by consent”.
The report said: “The model of policing by consent, pioneered in London and admired and copied around the world, requires the Met to both earn and maintain public trust in everything it does. However, there is declining public confidence and trust in the institution.”
The fact that public confidence in the Met has collapsed is rather unsurprising considering a recent slew of inexcusable scandals coupled with rising violent crime. The litany of serious sexual crimes committed by members of the force has brought it into disrepute with the general public.
Tuesday’s report even goes so far as to describe itself as being ” book-ended” by such rape scandals, with it starting shortly after the rape and murder of Sarah Everard at the hands of Met police constable Wayne Couzens.
Couzens abducted the 33-year-old woman under the auspices of arresting her for breaching COVID restrictions, before raping and murdering her.
The report now comes out only a little more than a month after another office for the force, David Carrick, was sentenced in court for being a serial rapist and sexual abuser, pleading guilty to two dozen rapes in January this year.
Carrick is said to have used his position in the force to gain the trust of women before raping them, with some of his victims being subjected to prolonged instances of sexual assault.
Some victims are even said to have been locked inside a small cupboard for significant lengths of time with no food.
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