LONDON: Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and bereaved families on Tuesday led calls for “top to bottom” reforms in London’s Metropolitan Police after a review found the UK’s largest crime-fighting force to be institutionally racist, sexist, and homophobic.
The report, prepared by government official Louise Casey, was commissioned two years ago after the kidnap, rape and murder of a woman Sarah Everard by serving Metropolitan Police officer Wayne Couzens.
Since then, another officer, David Carrick, has also been jailed for life for dozens of sexual assaults and rapes stretching back 2 decades, and several other scandals have emerged.
Casey found those crimes were perpetrated in a pervasive culture of deep homophobia and predatory behaviour, in which female police officers and staff routinely face misogyny and sexism.
She also warned the police force could still be employing murderers and rapists.
Bullying of minority officers in London police
She said that officers from minorities suffer widespread bullying, while violence against girls and women has not been treated seriously enough by the majority male and white force.
A Muslim officer complained of finding bacon left in boots inside a locker; a Sikh said reported his beard was cut because a colleague thought it was funny, and sex toys were found in coffee mugs as pranks.
Casey’s conclusions come about 25 years after the Macpherson Report — which investigated met failures after the killing of black teenager Stephen Lawrence in 1993 — also found the police institutionally racist and suggested dozens of reforms.
