The Casey Report finds the Metropolitan Police Service are institutionally racist, sexist and homophobic

The Casey Report follows the independent review into the standards of behaviour and internal culture of the Metropolitan Police Service. It was commissioned in the wake of the murder of Sarah Everard in March 2021 by Wayne Couzens, a serving police officer.

The review was asked to examine the extent to which the standards of behaviour expected of officers, staff and volunteers working in the Met were sufficiently clear, consistent, appropriate and adhered to.

The report concluded that:

There are systemic and fundamental problems in how the Met is run

• The Met is run as a set of disconnected and competing moving parts, lacking clear systems, goals or strategies
• Recruitment and vetting systems are poor and fail to guard against those who seek power in order to abuse it
• The Met’s processes do not effectively root out bad officers or help to tackle mediocre officers.

The Met has not managed the integrity of its own police service

• The Met did not stop to question its processes, despite heinous crimes perpetrated by serving Met officers
• Concerns raised through the misconduct or complaints processes are not well recorded and more likely to be dismissed than acted upon, with predatory behaviour being allowed to flourish.

Deep seated cultures need to be tackled in order for change to be sustained

• The Met dismisses external views and criticisms and does not learn from its mistakes – it starts from a position that nothing wrong has occurred
• The report highlights systemic racial bias in the misconduct system, poor child protection services, not recognising predatory behaviour and the dire state of property storage
• Not speaking up has become ingrained culture and those who do learn the hard way that there are adverse consequences for themselves, their careers and their teams.

Londoners have been put last

• London no longer has a functioning neighbourhood police service
• There are much weaker connections to long established communities.

London’s women and children have been left even further behind

• Officers contend with over-stuffed, dilapidated or broken fridge freezers containing evidence including the rape kits of victims and endure long waits for test results
• Despite the 2016 HMIC report into child protection being the most severely critical published about any force, the Met’s child protection services still have major inadequacies.

The Met lacks accountability and transparency

• The Met is a £4 billion public institution, yet has been unaccountable to the public and their representatives
• They have avoided scrutiny and have not shared information and data.

Discrimination is tolerated, not dealt with and is baked into the system

• 22% of staff experienced bullying
• 33% of those with a long-standing illness, disability or infirmity have experienced bullying
• 30% of LGBTQ+ employees have said they have been bullied
• Female officers and staff routinely face sexism and misogyny
• Black officers are 81% more likely to be in the misconduct system than their white counterparts
• Black Londoners remain over-policed and are far more likely to be stopped and searched, handcuffed, batoned and tasered, are over-represented in many serious crimes, and when they are the victim of crime they are less satisfied with the service they receive than other Londoners
• Stop and search is currently deployed by the Met at the cost of legitimacy, trust and consent.

The Met is in danger of ‘losing its way’ – consent is broken

• The Met’s key values, College of Policing’s Code of Ethics and Peelian principles, which the organisation should operate on the basis of, have not formed part of the Met’s approach internally or externally
• The Met has been losing its way and the worst aspects of its culture have impeded its ability to recognise this
• Public confidence has dipped below 50%, with fewer Londoners agreeing that the Met treats everyone fairly
• The Met has become unanchored from the principles of policing by consent.

The report emphasizes the critical need to tackle the institutional racism, misogyny and homophobia that is deep-rooted within the Metropolitan Police Service, which is particularly concerning in the wake of the home Secretary’s Public Order Bill which aims to widen police stop and search powers.

This comes 24 years after the Macpherson Report, which reviewed the investigation into the racially motivated murder of Stephen Lawrence. Casey’s report echoes many of Macpherson’s findings and therefore if any meaningful outcome is to be achieved it must begin with the Government reviewing the current extent of police powers.

Saunders Law has an expert team of police action, civil liberties and human rights solicitors who are experienced in bringing cases against the police and other state bodies. Please contact us on 020 7632 4300 or here for further information.