The Metropolitan Police has “got a problem” that needs to be tackled, Dominic Raab said today as the force was braced for the release of a damning report expected to criticise the Met for being racist, sexist and homophobic.
The justice secretary said Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley was striving to “root out” the “bad apples” in the service, adding that issues were not isolated to one or two officers and.
His comments come ahead of the release of the Casey review into the force, which was commissioned following the murder of Sarah Everard by a serving officer, Wayne Couzens, in 2021.
The former victims’ commissioner is expected to publish her findings next week.
Mr Raab, who serves as both deputy prime minister and justice secretary, said there were “clearly practises that have been far too prevalent” within the force that needed tackling “head-on”.
The Cabinet minister said it was clear that bad behaviour was not confined to only one or two officers.
He told LBC: “The vast majority of police officers in the Met and elsewhere do their job professionally, serve the country extremely well.
“But we’ve clearly got a problem in the Met and the thing to do is to own that problem, take it, tackle it head on. That’s why the Casey review is so important, that’s why the work that Commissioner Rowley is already doing is so important. And we can’t duck it, we can’t pretend that this is purely an isolated officer or two. There are clearly practises that have been far too prevalent that we must face head on.
“So the headlines will give you some sense of that but what really matters is the reviews and any action we take consistently and across the board to give women the confidence they can have and must have in the police and all arms of the criminal justice system.”
Mr Raab also said the UK Government would “embrace and engage with” findings of the report.
He told Sky News: “I’m not going to get ahead of the Casey report but we want a no-holds barred review. We want to look at this as critically as we possibly can.”
As well as Couzens’ rape and murder of Ms Everard, former Met officer David Carrick was recently unmasked as one of the UK’s most prolific sex offenders.
Following the full discovery of Carrick’s crimes, the force is carrying out a review of cases where officers and staff had been accused of domestic violence or sexual offences but remained with the force.
MPs were told this week that a Met officer who remained in his job after being caught masturbating on a train is having his case reviewed as part of the undertaking.
The Guardian said the review by Baroness Casey had been described by a source as “atrocious” and said its conclusion would make clear that Scotland Yard was in the “last-chance saloon”.
Mr Raab told Sky News that ministers wanted to see a “no-holds barred review” from Baroness Casey into what needed to be addressed by the Met, in what appeared to be an admission that a scathing report is expected.
But he seemed to signal the government’s backing for Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley — a former chief constable for Surrey Police which covers Mr Raab’s constituency — who he said was striving to “root out” the “bad apples” in the service.
Sir Mark was appointed in September as head of the Met, taking over from acting commissioner Sir Stephen House, who had been temporarily standing in while Dame Cressida Dick’s permanent successor was found.
Mr Raab vowed that ministers would “leave no stone unturned” to ensure that police were protecting rather than posing a threat to women.
“The vast majority of police officers in the Met and elsewhere do their job professionally, serve the country extremely well,” he told LBC.
“But we’ve clearly got a problem in the Met and the thing to do is to own that problem, take it, tackle it head-on.
“That’s why the Casey review is so important, that’s why the work that Commissioner Rowley is already doing is so important.
“And we can’t duck it, we can’t pretend that this is purely an isolated officer or two.
“There are clearly practises that have been far too prevalent that we must face head-on.
“So the headlines will give you some sense of that. But what really matters is the reviews and any action we take consistently and across the board to give women the confidence they can have and must have in the police and all arms of the criminal justice system.”
