Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has said that the Metropolitan Police Force is dogged by “real challenges” and “real problems”, and that the next commissioner will need to address these issues to restore public trust.
Speaking to the BBC, Khan acknowledged that there were some “dedicated, decent, brave officers” on the Met’s books, but warned that a culture of “systemic sexism, racism, homophobia, discrimination, misogyny” had been allowed to fester and needed to be dealt with.
The next full-time commissioner is yet to be appointed after Dame Cressida Dick stepped down in February. Stephen House has since taken on the role of acting commissioner.
Dame Cressida opted to resign after the London mayor said that he had lost confidence in her leadership to implement the changes required within the force.
Dame Cressida’s tenure coincided with some high-profile controversies, including the murder of Sarah Everard by a serving officer and the uncovering of racist and homophobic behaviour by officers based at Charing Cross.
Back in October 2021 while Dame Cressida was still in charge, an independent review of the Met’s culture and standards was launched, to be chaired by Baroness Casey.
The Met said that the review would investigate the force’s vetting processes, recruitment and training procedures, and its handling of sexual misconduct and abuse allegations against serving personnel. The probe – which the Met said would form part of a range of measures to help restore trust in the force – is ongoing.
Khan told the BBC: “One of the reasons why I lost confidence in the previous commissioner [Dame Cressida] was my lack of confidence in her plan to address the two big issues. Addressing the systemic racism, sexism, homophobia, misogyny, but also the trust and confidence required from our public.
“That's one of the things that they will be checking the new commissioner for.”
Khan conceded that while the Met was “making huge progress” in reducing the rates of crime, it was an alarming development that the force was “losing trust and confidence”.
Khan said: “The police have made really good progress in the last six years in reducing those crimes, but I can't escape the fact that too many people on our city haven't got the confidence they should have in our police service.”
Photo by King's Church International on Unsplash
