If anyone was harbouring doubts about the size of the challenge facing the recently appointed Metropolitan police commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, the interim report just delivered by Louise Casey should blow them away. Sir Mark took the job knowing that public trust needs to be rebuilt after a series of scandals involving appalling police behaviour. Following the decision by the policing inspectorate to place the force in special measures due to failures including huge gaps in crime recording and a backlog of child abuse referrals, Lady Casey highlights flawed internal disciplinary processes as another cause for concern.
Her review was triggered by the revelation that complaints about Wayne Couzens were not investigated. Couzens, who went on to rape and murder Sarah Everard, was reported on more than one occasion to have indecently exposed himself. Thanks to Lady Casey’s analysis of data going back to 2013, we now know that the decision to overlook allegations of sexual misconduct against Couzens is part of a pattern, not a one-off. In the past nine years, less than 1% of officers accused of at least two breaches of standards have been dismissed, while more than half of all allegations against officers were rejected as “no case to answer”.
