When the shortlist to find Dame Cressida Dick’s replacement as Scotland Yard chief is whittled down tomorrow, the candidates will all have a familiar look. Critics claim Mayor Sadiq Khan’s brutal ousting of the Metropolitan Police’s first female Commissioner in its 193-year history has backfired. For it is certain a white, middle-aged man will lead Britain’s biggest force to usher in urgent reform amid allegations of a toxic culture of sexism, racism and homophobia in its ranks.
After much jostling, five highly-experienced contenders have emerged, raising questions over whether Dame Cressida’s “male and pale” successor can be an ally for all Londoners. Sir Mark Rowley, 57, a former Met deputy chief and head of UK anti-terror policing, is the frontrunner, followed by assistant commissioner Nick Ephgrave, 56, who led the team that finally solved 10-year-old Damilola Taylor’s killing, six years after he was stabbed to death in Peckham. Also entering the fray are Devon and Cornwall’s retiring chief Shaun Sawyer, 59, ex-Bedfordshire boss Jon Boutcher, 56, and New Zealand’s former top policeman Mike Bush, 61, who would become the first foreign commissioner.
Dispiritingly, none of the UK’s 13 female chief constables or deputy chief constables applied, many in solidarity with Dame Cressida. Home Secretary Priti Patel’s early choice, Dame Lynne Owens, a respected former head of the National Crime Agency, ruled herself out, and Met acting deputy Helen Ball and its assistant commissioner Louisa Rolfe — the public face of the Met after the kidnap, rape and murder of Sarah Everard by serving Pc Wayne Couzens last March — both declined to throw their hats into the ring.
“If anything, women officers looked at the job and thought, ‘Is it really doable?’ ” says one retired chief constable, who gave careful consideration to applying (she didn’t). “Many male officers just have this overwhelming confidence that they can do it and will succeed. I’d love to have done it and would never say never but the substantial reform required needs the support of national and local politicians. I couldn’t see a place in the appointment process for that discussion.”
Former Detective Chief Superintendent Sue Hill, of the British Association for Women in Policing, says: “I hold Cressida in high regard but she was treated appallingly. I hope that won’t put women off in the future — it’s a hard enough job as it is. But policing has become political… Life’s too short to take on that poisoned chalice.”
The recruitment process also exposed the lack of black, Asian and ethnic minority officers senior for the £293,000-a-year role. The fact that only two black officers in policing history had reached the rank of chief constable or assistant commissioner is a “failure”, according to the National Police Chiefs’ Council and the College of Policing. On Tuesday, both bodies set out a race action plan admitting they are “ashamed” of racism within their ranks.
At the Police Federation annual conference last week, Ms Patel swerved questions the Standard put to her as to whether women, girls or minority groups in London would have faith in the five hopefuls. The Home Secretary said the “awful, awful circumstances” of Miss Everard’s killing, offensive WhatsApp exchanges between officers at Charing Cross, and the jailing of two constables for sharing images of the bodies of murdered sisters Bibaa Henry, 46, and Nicole Smallman, 27, meant “we cannot stand still on this issue”.
Ms Patel, who will consult with Mr Khan over the appointment, added: “We have seen some of the most appalling and egregious behaviour that have undermined public confidence in policing. At the same time, you’ve got a Home Secretary who absolutely and fundamentally believes in policing, backs the police and has put £17billion in to give them the powers to go after criminals.”
Certainly, whoever succeeds Cressida Dick will have a towering in-tray to deal with. The Met has 43,000 officers and staff — many of whom are doing excellent detective work. Overall, shootings are down 37 per cent in London with 524 firearms seized. In the last five years, counter terrorism and the security services stopped 29 attacks. The Met’s Predatory Offenders Unit, targeting those making life hell for women and girls, has made nearly 3,000 arrests in the last year.
The candidates for the next Met police commissioner don’t strike me as people who will strive for radical reform
But the violent crime epidemic saw a record 30 teenagers killed in the capital last year. Vehicle theft is up 14 per cent and only a fraction of those crimes and burglaries are solved. There have been rampant allegations of sexism, corruption and racism in the force in the past 12 months, and two inquiries - set up in the wake of Miss Everard’s - murder will report into the Met’s culture. One, an internally-commissioned probe led by Baroness Louise Casey will shine a spotlight on the force’s Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command - where armed PC Couzens worked - to look at whether there are any “specific issues” within the unit.
The second is a Home Office commissioned inquiry by Dame Elish Angiolini scrutinising vetting failures that allowed Miss Everard’s killer to work for three forces despite concerns about his behaviour. Operation Soteria is studying allegations rape investigations were dropped quickly after women were branded “liars and time-wasters”. Gross misconduct disciplinary hearings will also be held for five police officers involved in the stop-and-search of Team GB athlete Bianca Williams and her partner Ricardo Dos Santos Ms Williams accused police of racially profiling the pair on July 4, 2020. Separately, the new Scotland Yard chief will have to find replacements for acting commissioner Sir Stephen House, Ms Ball and others in the senior management team who are expected to exit stage left.
Clearly, change is needed. “At the moment, the possible candidates for the next Met police commissioner don’t strike me as people who will strive for radical reform of the force,” observes Patsy Stephenson, the activist who was photographed being pinned down by officers during a vigil for marketing executive Miss Everard on Clapham Common, an image that travelled around the world. “Whoever replaces Cressida needs to understand the institutional racism, sexism, homophobia and transphobia rife within the Met to be able to eradicate it.”
“The experience of many Londoners under the previous commissioner shows that diverse representation, even in the top job, will not cure the force’s culture,” observes Habib Kadiri, from stop-and-search campaign group StopWatch. Habib also adds that the current shortlist fails to reflect the demography of London, which is around 44 per cent black or ethnic minority.
Appointing someone who isn’t a middle-aged white man to be tokenistic is not going to solve the issue
Sadiq Khan is bullish on the issue. “The Mayor makes no apology for demanding fundamental and deep-rooted change in the Met after a series of devastating scandals exposed misogyny, racism, sexism, homophobia and bullying in the force and saw public trust in the Met fall to its lowest on record (49 per cent) — down from 68 per cent in March 2017 when Cressida Dick became commissioner,” a spokesman for Mr Khan says. “Sadiq is now working with the Home Secretary to appoint a new Commissioner who understands the depths of the cultural issues facing the Met and has a comprehensive plan to restore the trust and confidence of all of Londoners in the service. Since May 2016, the number of female officers who have joined the Met has increased by more than 20 per cent and the Mayor has set high targets to increase the diversity of officers in the Met at every rank - so Londoners see themselves fully reflected in their own police service and all of London’s diverse communities feel protected and served.”
Still, reform is at least top of the agenda now - and Shout Out UK founder Matteo Bergamini, who campaigns for political education in schools, points out that it is unrealistic to expect change overnight. Although people are “incredibly angry, appointing someone who isn’t a middle-aged white man to be tokenistic is not going to solve the issue,” he says. “You could be setting them up to fail when the institution itself is the problem.”
Former detective sergeant Janet Hills, ex-head of the Met’s Black Police Association, agrees, pointing to the radical reform under contender Mr Boutcher in diverse Luton and Bedford, that improved community relations. “Since the death of George Floyd in the US, the whole use of the word ally has come about. Even though black communities will get more of the same, whoever gets the Met role needs to understand how they can be effective. We thought change would come with the first female commissioner but, for me, it got worse. In meetings I had with Cressida and her senior team, it was like witnessing a flock of ostriches with their heads in the sand. The Met needs to own its institutional racism and say what they are going to do to tackle it.
“If the next commissioner is a white man, and he does that, people will run towards the Met to work with them.”
