Met failings let corrupt police stay on force

Metropolitan police officers suspected of serious criminal offences including sexual assault and domestic abuse have been allowed to escape justice, a damning review has found, with the force's leader admitting that hundreds of racist, women-hating, and corrupt officers have been left in the ranks.

- Vikram Dodd

Huge failings in how Britain's biggest force roots out wrongdoing were exposed in a report by Louise Casey, which found misogyny and "systemic" racism in the Met.

One officer faced 11 claims including sexual assault, harassment, and domestic abuse, but remains in the force, the report found. The Met's new commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, said he may still not have the power to remove the officer, and would ask government for the power to reopen past cases.

Rowley said he was appalled by the findings and apologised to officers and members of the public who had been let down. He said the number of officers and staff being sacked each year, between about 30 and 50, was "massively under-engineered", and he estimated there were hundreds of officers in the Met who should be kicked out of the force.

"You have to come to the conclusion there must be hundreds of people that shouldn't be here, who should be thrown out," Rowley said. "There must be hundreds who are behaving disgracefully, undermining our integrity, and need ejecting."

Lady Casey was commissioned by the Met in the wake of the kidnap, rape, and murder of Sarah Everard by a serving officer. This is her interim report, which focused purely on the Met's discipline system and on complaints from officers and staff about their colleagues.

It reveals that Met officers and staff trying to fight toxic colleagues were betrayed by the force's discipline system, and feared an "anything goes" culture.

The findings are among the worst faced by any police force. Rowley said he felt shame and anger reading the report, and admitted conversations with female and ethnic minority staff about their experiences had left him in tears. The report showed the Met had been "too weak" in dealing with wrongdoing in the ranks, he added.