London Police Are No Better Liked Than Their American Counterparts

An official report commissioned by London’s Metropolitan Police Force says that the Met is institutionally racist, homophobic, and misogynistic.

The 376-page report was commissioned after a Met officer abducted Sarah Everard, taking her from a London street in March 2021, before raping and murdering her.

The report claims that 12% of women on the force say they’ve been harassed or attacked at work, with reports being covered up or downplayed.

The author of the report, Baroness Louise Casey, blames past leadership. “Public respect has fallen to a low point. Londoners who do not have confidence in the Met outnumber those who do, and these measures have been lower amongst black Londoners for years.”

“The Met has yet to free itself of institutional racism. Public consent is broken. The Met has become unanchored from the Peelian principle of policing by consent set out when it was established.”

The Guardian:

The report found a bullying culture, frontline officers demoralized and feeling let down by their leaders, and discrimination “baked into the system”.

Casey revealed that one Muslim officer had bacon stuffed in his boots, a Sikh officer had his beard cut, minority ethnic officers were much more likely to be disciplined or leave, and Britain’s biggest force remains disproportionately white, in a capital that is increasingly diverse.

Stop and search and use of force on powers against black people was excessive, found the report for the Met – which stops more people per head of population than any other force.

Most of this sounds familiar to Americans. And it makes me wonder how much “American contagion” has shaped the attitudes of Londoners toward their police.

There has been massive media coverage of missteps by the American police. Charges of racism, brutality, sexism, and other transgressions against citizens not to mention the high-profile killings of suspects in police custody may have blended in with the Met’s own problems with enforcing the law.

Is the Met any worse than any other big city police force? In some ways, most definitely.

Already crushingly low convictions of rapists were made worse by fridges that housed rape kits being broken, or being so full that evidence was lost, and cases dropped with rapists going free because of police bungles. Casey claimed in one instance someone ruined a fridge full of evidence by leaving their lunchbox in it.

Casey said the Met had blown repeated chances to reform by official inquiries over the decades and warned the force must not cherrypick the reforms it likes. It should implement her recommendations as a whole, she said.

The leadership is denying charges of “institutional racism,” as well they should. The allegation is impossible to prove and is more of a buzzword than a serious charge. Certainly, there is some racism in the enforcement of the law — but not by all officers and certainly not as a matter of policy.

American police forces have suffered these same charges and can only promise to do better. The “reforms” recommended are largely cosmetic because there’s no way to get inside someone’s head and change their lifelong attitudes and beliefs.

Met police officers can expect more restrictions and more paperwork if history is any guide.