The head of the Police Federation of England and Wales has said he accepts the Metropolitan police is institutionally racist, misogynistic and homophobic.
Steve Hartshorn said he accepted in full the findings of the report on the Met by Baroness Louise Casey which laid bare failings which have severely damaged the reputation of Britain’s largest force.
The report came in the wake of the cases of ex-PC Wayne Couzens, who killed Sarah Everard, and rapist officer David Carrick. Both used their position as serving officers to commit heinous crimes.
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 [will] 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 was speaking in an interview marking the 30th anniversary of Stephen Lawrence’s murder which led to the report by Sir William Macpherson into the failings that left the racist killers of Lawrence free was the first official report to find the Met guilty of institutional racism, in 1999.
Almost a quarter of a century later, Louise Casey reached the same conclusion in a report published last month – but it was not accepted in full by the Met commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, who claimed “institutional” was ambiguous and a political term.
Hartshorn said he accepted the term.
He added: “What’s the harm in accepting it if we understand that it’s not labelling every officer as institutionally racist, sexist, homophobic, corrupt?’”
“There’s been clear failings in leadership … to address the very issues that should have been dealt with, and consigned to history.
“It could be argued that, yes, it manifestly has got worse because, you know, 25-30 years on, things don’t seem to improve and we’re still having these horrendous issues.
“If it’s institutional failings of racism, sexism, homophobia, that has to sit at levels of senior leadership throughout the organisation.”
Mr Hartshorn was elected last year as chair of the federation, which represents more than 130,000 rank-and-file officers across England and Wales. He said making his views public was an act of “leadership”, with policing needing a “mindset shift” to move on from race problems that had dogged it for decades.
He added: “Acceptance is the first step to moving on.”
The Met Police has been contacted for comment.
