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2 days ago
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The Metropolitan police are to face a new inquiry into whether they have radically changed after a devastating report found the force was riddled with prejudice and failing the public, the Guardian has learned.
The “Casey 2” inquiry was supposed to have been launched earlier this year but has been delayed. It is a follow-up to the review by Louise Casey that in 2023 found the Met to be institutionally racist and misogynistic, and concluded that Britain’s largest police force could be broken up if it failed to change.
Two recent scandals have, at least in part, prompted the Met to act and for a new person to be found to carry out the inquiry: Dr Gillian Fairfield, the chair of the Disclosure and Barring Service. She conducted a review for the last government into the effectiveness of the police watchdog, the Independent Office for Police Conduct.
Fairfield’s appointment is expected to be officially announced later this month and was decided by the Met and the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime, overseen by Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London.
Lady Casey is engaged in work for central government.
The first event that gave impetus to act on the promise of a second Casey-style inquiry was the discovery of excessive use of force and bigoted remarks by officers at Charing Cross station in central London, exposed through an undercover investigation by BBC Panorama.
This was closely followed by the second event, a Met-commissioned report by Dr Shereen Daniels that blamed the force for inflicting “racial harm” on black people which was “institutionally defended”, with its leadership and culture protecting the force from real change.
Daniels’ report suggested little progress had been made, despite promises by the Met commissioner, Mark Rowley, that it would do so after Casey’s devastating findings two years ago.
Andy George, the chair of the National Black Police Association, said the chair of the new inquiry would need to be ruthless to cut through Met excuses to get to the truth: “It needs to be somebody who is relentless in pursuing the truth, someone who gets beneath the rhetoric. We fear Casey 2 might be another buying-time exercise.
“Things have not changed. The commissioner has been given too much time and space to do things his way.”
After Casey’s report, the London policing board was set up to oversee its progress in reforming itself. The former Met chief superintendent Dal Babu, a member of the board, said: “It is important to have an independent review of Baroness Casey recommendations into her findings of institutional racism, institutional misogyny and institutional homophobia. Although some progress has been made, the Panorama programme demonstrates there is much more for the Metropolitan Police Service to do.”
The Casey report was commissioned by the Met after one of its officers abducted Sarah Everard, taking her from a London street in March 2021, before raping and murdering her.
Casey’s report found a bullying culture, with frontline officers feeling demoralised and let down by their leaders, and discrimination “baked into the system”. The latter conclusion was also reached two years on by Daniels’ report.
Casey warned: “If sufficient progress is not being made at the points of further review, more radical, structural options, such as dividing up the Met into national, specialist and London responsibilities, should be considered to ensure the service to Londoners is prioritised.”
Rowley has said 1,500 officers have been ousted, with more to follow. He has accepted discrimination was systemic but refused to accept the force should be described as institutionally racist, misogynistic or homophobic.
