It’s no one-off. The problems cannot be laid at the door of a single rogue officer or isolated WhatsApp message. The Metropolitan Police, London’s police service, has essentially been placed in special measures after being hit by a series of scandals, from the murder of Sarah Everard by a serving officer to the strip-search of a school girl in Hackney.
Let us make no mistake about it: this is a shameful day for the Met. HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services referenced systemic and shocking failures, reportedly including “barely adequate standard of crime-recording accuracy” with 69,000 crimes left unrecorded per year and close to no anti-social behaviour crimes being registered.
The political reaction has been predictable and unhelpful. Sadiq Khan has pointed the finger at the Home Secretary, who in turn blames the Mayor as the effective Police and Crime Commissioner for the capital. It is simply another flank in the forever war between City Hall and central government where once again, it is Londoners caught in the middle and failed.
But Khan has, like the Evening Standard, been consistently calling on the Met to clean up its act. Indeed, it was the Home Secretary who criticised the Mayor over his handling of the resignation of now-former Commissioner Cressida Dick, which occurred before these latest dysfunctions came to light.
London, a global city of more than eight million people, is not easy to police. Challenges from international terrorism to online fraud and street muggings would test any force. But the Met has repeatedly fallen well below basic standards, and in the last 12 months lurched from crisis to crisis.
There are deep-seated issues that cannot be swept under the carpet. February’s report by the Independent Office of Police Complaints (IOPC) into Charing Cross Police Station uncovered a culture of misogyny, racism, homophobia and bullying. The IOPC was at pains to point out that these incidents were “not isolated or simply the behaviour of a few bad apples”. It is a problem across the Met, and it must change.
This ought to be rock bottom. These developments should focus minds and be taken as an opportunity for a new Commissioner to come in and deliver the root and branch reform the Met clearly needs and Londoners deserve.
Because, every woman, man and child in our city should be able to have confidence in their police service, in the probity of individual officers, and ultimately feel safe on the streets. To say we are not there yet would be an understatement. But Londoners should demand no less.
An inspiring Dame
In death as in life, Dame Deborah James has inspired the nation. With the work she has done, the awareness she has raised and the spirit she has demonstrated, we are all in debt to her.
Her Bowelbabe fund, raising money for Cancer Research UK, is poised to hit £8 million. From teaching to podcasting, she has touched so many of our lives. But 40 is no age at all to leave this world, her family and friends.
We should do as Dame Deborah would tell us. Check for symptoms of bowel cancer, and come forward for screening so that fewer lives are cut tragically short.
