Is this the end of the Met Police?
New StatesmanMar 21, 2023
The Facts
The UK's Metropolitan Police (Met) is rife with "systematic and fundamental" issues, and the institution itself rests on a bedrock of discrimination, according to a report from Baroness Louise Casey released on Tuesday.
The review, commissioned following the rape and murder of Sarah Everard in 2021 by a serving officer, details shortcomings in basic procedures, including the poor state or usage of fridges containing forensic samples, reportedly leading to evidence becoming unusable and rape cases being dropped.
The Spin
Left narrative
The severity of this report raises the possibility of abolishing an institution that's failing the public and is set on a bedrock of discrimination. Perhaps most significantly, Casey finds that the depravity and suffering detailed in the review all link back to the austerity imposed under the coalition and Conservative governments since 2010. There's little chance that the Tories will be able to defend their record on crime in the lead-up to the next election. Their blind-sided focus on balancing the books has put the British public at risk and led to the country's largest police force reaching a potentially irreversible state of corrupt dilapidation.
Right narrative
Overemphasizing the role of austerity in this sorry state of affairs risks implying some kind of vindication of Met management, which Casey identifies as a "series of disconnected and competing moving parts" with "broken" vetting procedures and a lack of long-term planning. Senior officers facilitated a culture of bullying and discrimination to dominate an institution that's supposed to ensure justice and provide protection. Though the findings that the Met is institutionally sexist, racist, and homophobic are certainly contentious, there's no doubt the Met requires fundamental reform, which must come from the top.