One of the Metropolitan Police’s most senior officers told an Iftar event for Muslims that the force is on its ‘last chance’ to regain the trust of the public.
Chief Superintendent Jeff Boothe’s comments came at a special meal to break the Ramadan fast – just days after a damning report found the Met institutionally racist, misogynistic and homophobic.
The 363-page report by Baroness Louise Casey identified a number of cases where female, gay or minority ethnic officers were abused or mistreated by colleagues.
It also revealed widespread bullying, racist attitudes and “deep-seated homophobia”.
Baroness Louise Casey spent a year investigating the force following the murder of Sarah Everard.
This week the Met Police held an Iftar event for Muslims and non-Muslims to break their fast at New Scotland Yard.
Chief superintendent Jeff Boothe addressed some of the concerns raised by the Casey Report at the event.
He said: “I think it is vitally important that I’m very, very candid with you in this room.
“We have reached the stage as an organisation, I would say it is at the crossroads, where we probably have the last chance in terms of trying to regain the trust and confidence in all sectors of the community.
“For many of us the findings were not new, for many of us we have been saying this for years, but it looks like it takes a baroness to reveal what we have been saying for quite some time.”
Chief Supt Boothe added: “You can look at it in a number of ways, you can look at it as an opportunity to continue in the way we have been behaving for a number of years, or we can see this opportunity to bring about real change.
“I really hope that with yourselves the wider community, you challenge us to be the change you really want to see.”
Boothe said the force was continuing to grow its community outreach work to attract the number of women and people from underrepresented groups to consider a policing career.
He added: “It is vitally important that you have the trust in us and it is vitally important you hold us to account for what we’re doing and when we have got it wrong we have to have humility and put our hands up and say we got it wrong.
“But also to have the empathy to understand the pain and suffering that has been caused to all sectors of the community.”
The Iftar event, hosted in partnership with Algebra Festivals, saw around 50 people break their fast together with dates, followed by the Adhan (call to prayer) before a buffet dinner was served.
Chief Supt Jeff Boothe said the event was to acknowledge the importance of the Muslim faith as well as encourage people to join the organisation.
He said the force had recently held a modest fashion show to emphasise how two Muslim women were able to work as police officers and be true to their faith in terms of the uniform they were wearing.
Zak Hullemuth, who is the chairman of the Association of Muslim Police, which supports Muslim officers, said: “You probably heard about the baroness review, the criticism of the MET and the culture, but we are here to work to make these changes.”
Mr Hullemuth said there were around 1,500 Muslim officers in the MET and 3,000 officers in forces across the UK.
