Professionalism, integrity, courage, compassion. These are the values that the Metropolitan police say underpin their work to keep Londoners safe. They claim that their vision is to be the most trusted police force in the world.
Those lofty statements appear ludicrous when set against the findings of Louise Casey’s independent review into behaviour and culture at the Met, published last week. She was commissioned to undertake the review in the wake of the abduction, rape and murder of Sarah Everard by a serving Met firearms officer, who used his warrant card as a tool to commit his abhorrent crimes. Her findings are shocking and unequivocal, yet unsurprising to anyone who has followed scandal after scandal in recent years. Almost 25 years on from the landmark Macpherson report that judged that the Met was institutionally racist, Casey is clear that it remains so and that it is also institutionally misogynistic and homophobic.
