Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley
(Picture: PA Wire)Sting operations and other “ruthless” tactics will be used to sack hundreds of rogue officers, the Met Commissioner vowed today after a damning report found that racists, misogynists and sex offenders have been allowed to stay in his force.
Sir Mark Rowley said the scale of misconduct by officers uncovered in Baroness Casey’s report was “appalling” and brought a “tear to your eye” as he promised action to restore integrity.
He said that new measures would include surveillance and sting operations against officers normally used to tackle organised criminals. He added that officers in leadership positions would also be deemed as “guilty as the offender” if they adopted a “walk by” attitude and ignored discrimination and bigotry by those in their charge.
Sir Mark’s pledge today follows the publication of Baroness Casey’s interim report into the Met’s failing internal disciplinary process.
It concludes that an “anything goes” culture has allowed officers responsible for “truly awful” and “hair-raising” bigotry and criminal behaviour to keep their jobs with some escaping despite multiple cases against them.
Her report, which was commissioned in response to the kidnap, rape and murder of Sarah Everard by serving Met officer Wayne Couzens, says that other problems include white officers being treated less harshly than black or Asian officers and disciplinary cases taking too long to conclude. It adds that most investigations, particularly those involving discrimination or sexual misconduct, end without any sanction.
Sir Mark, who took over as Met Commissioner last month, responded today by admitting his anger and dismay at the findings and making a renewed promise of action to clean up his force. He said that the evidence from Baroness Casey’s report, which covers the period from April 2013 to March this year, indicated that hundreds of officers were still in the Met’s ranks who should have been dismissed.
“It makes you angry and it brings a tear to your eye to hear some of these stories and to speak to some colleagues who have suffered such racist or misogynist behaviour in the organisation and it’s been badly dealt with,” he said.
“We have been far, far too weak in our approach. There must be hundreds of officers we need to be getting rid off over the forthcoming years. You need to take this much more rounded, determined, head-on approach, that actually this person shouldn’t be here, let’s look at the picture of everything they’re up and let’s work out what’s the best way to build the case that leads to them being thrown out.”
Sir Mark said that methods previously used to catch corrupt officers helping organised criminals would be deployed to remove racist police.
“This misogyny, this racism. It undermines our integrity just as badly. We should be using the same tactics: sting operations, surveillance, all that you would expect to find these officers and root them out.”
Baroness Casey said that her “worst nightmare” would be if her report’s findings were allowed to “sit on the shelf”.
“I’ve had countless officers say to me the misconduct system is not good enough,” she said. “They have to see today as a line in the sand and we move forward — not denying the problem, not being defensive, but accepting it and doing something about it.”
