The head of the Police Federation of England and Wales has said the Met is institutionally racist, misogynistic and homophobic.
Chairman Steve Hartshorn pitted himself against Scotland Yard chief Sir Mark Rowley and the force’s rank-and-file branch by accepting the finding of Baroness Louise Casey’s bombshell review into Sarah Everard’s killer Wayne Couzens and serial rapist David Carrick last month.
In an interview marking the 30th anniversary of teenager Stephen Lawrence’s murder, Mr Hartshorn added he expected a “backlash” for his seismic comments, which he stressed were his personal view.
Ken Marsh, chair of the Met’s Police Federation, described Mr Hartshorn’s comments as “very unhelpful”, adding he stood by Sir Mark’s assessment which he said were backed up academic studies.
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark said he accepted Baroness Casey’s diagnosis of racism, misogyny and homophobia in the force but would not use term “institutional” because it has become politicised and means different things to different people.
Former Met firearms officer Mr Hartshorn was elected last year to represent 130,000 officers across the country.
He said becoming the first leader of a major British policing body to publicly air his opinion is an act of “leadership”.
Asked if he accepted Casey’s key findings about discrimination being institutional in the Met, Mr Hartshorn told the Guardian: “For me, I personally do accept the findings in the report.
“I represent lots of those people that have come forward to speak. Some of my colleagues will probably not like the fact that I’m accepting there are institutional failings and biases within such a massive organisation.
“But then many will, and go ‘well, what’s the harm in accepting it if we understand that it’s not labelling every officer as institutionally racist, sexist, homophobic, corrupt?’”
He added: “You just say that these poor practices and certain behaviours must change so we can understand people’s negative lived experiences to get better and improve on that. And that in turn, should give confidence that policing is part of the community and hopefully start to reassure the public we are listening.”
The Macpherson report into 18-year-old Stephen’s racist murder in Eltham, south east London on April 22, 1993 labelled the force “institutionally racist”. The original police investigation was hindered from the start amid allegations of racism and corruption.
On Wednesday his mother Doreen Lawrence said that the Metropolitan Police has failed to change in the 30 years since his murder.
She claimed officers can be “as brutal as they want” without being held to account and black people are never seen as individuals “that should have justice”.
