Sir Mark Rowley joined the police a decade after the departure of Sir Robert Mark, the former Met commissioner whose campaign against a culture of corruption led to an exodus of 478 police officers. Nearly 40 years later, the culture is still rotten. With Sir Mark now at its helm, the Met has been found institutionally racist, misogynistic and homophobic. Transforming it will be an uphill battle and an even bigger challenge than that faced by Sir Robert. Corruption in the Met today is less about back-handed bribes than widespread tolerance of behaviours that could threaten the very existence of the force.
Sir Mark intends to start by sacking officers. Last week, he wrote to Suella Braverman and Sadiq Khan calling for new powers to do so. The Met is prevented from directly firing officers by a requirement that misconduct hearings be heard by an independent chair. The Home Office is currently reviewing this system, but changes should be approached carefully: as the president of the body that represents tribunal chairs pointed out on Monday, the current rules were introduced in 2015 to make the process more open. Returning to the old system, where hearings were private, would not bring more transparency. Instead, the Home Office should heed Louise Casey’s advice and give chief constables the right to appeal against tribunal decisions to reinstate officers.
