It’s the most damning report within the close to 200-year historical past of Scotland Yard.
Baroness Casey blasted the Metropolitan Police, saying that bullying and predatory behaviour reigned, bosses have been unable to identify rapists within the ranks and victims have been made to really feel like an ‘inconvenience’.
In excoriating element her evaluate set out how the Met misplaced its means.
Baroness Casey pictured arriving at Queen Elizabeth II Convention Centre yesterday for the press briefing of her evaluate into the requirements of behaviour and inner tradition of the Metropolitan Police Service
Baroness Casey’s report has set out how the Met Police has misplaced its means. Pictured: File picture
CRUCIAL RAPE EVIDENCE LOST WHEN FREEZERS FAIL
Proof from numerous rape probes has been destroyed due to damaged fridges and freezers, the evaluate discovered. A lunchbox was present in the identical fridge as rape samples – a mistake that will have contaminated the proof.
Forensic kits that protect proof obtained from survivors of sexual violence, together with swabs, blood, urine and underwear, are stuffed in fridges so full it takes three officers to shut them – one to push the door closed, one to carry it shut and one to safe the lock.
All of the fridges used for rape kits have been in unhealthy form, packed and ruining proof, Baroness Casey discovered. She described freezers overflowing with proof samples, frosted over or taped shut. In a heatwave final yr, one broke down and all rape victims whose samples have been in that fridge have been advised their instances can be dropped.
Pictured is rapist and assassin PC Wayne Couzens who served within the Met Police
One feminine officer stated she had ‘misplaced depend’ of the variety of occasions she had requested a colleague the place the required proof was earlier than being advised that it had been misplaced.
One other officer advised of year-long waits for toxicology outcomes and forensic examination of telephones. Individually police are being advised to recurrently delete their WhatsApps within the wake of a string of scandals about officers swapping vile messages with one another.
Deputy Commissioner Dame Lynne Owens admitted yesterday that she didn’t know what number of instances had been dropped on account of the fridge points.
BULLYING BAKED INTO THE SYSTEM
Baroness Casey described a ‘bullying tradition’ the place discrimination was ‘baked into the system’.
Younger recruits are subjected to humiliating initiation rituals proper from the start of their careers, together with meals consuming challenges and being urinated on. One officer was even allegedly sexually assaulted in a bathe. Examples of ‘pranks’ included luggage of urine being thrown at vehicles, intercourse toys slipped into espresso mugs, male officers flicking one another’s genitals and an animal being trapped in an officer’s locker.
One Muslim officer stated: ‘I discovered bacon left in my boots inside my locked locker. I used to be horrified. I did not need to be branded an individual who performed the race card and out of worry of reprisals didn’t inform anybody on the time.’
One other recalled: ‘There have been various incidents the place baptised [Sikh] officers are picked on. One officer had his beard reduce as a result of an officer thought it was humorous. One other officer had his turban put right into a shoe field as a result of they thought it was humorous.’
ARMED UNITS ARE THE ‘DARK CORNER’
The report stated Scotland Yard’s armed models have been a ‘darkish nook’ of the pressure.
Baroness Casey described ‘elitist attitudes and poisonous cultures of bullying, racism, sexism and ableism’ within the Specialist Firearms Command and Parliamentary and Diplomatic Safety Command, the place Sarah Everard’s killer Wayne Couzens and serial rapist David Carrick have been officers.
Within the ‘boys’ membership’, senior armed officers have competitions to see if they’ll make feminine colleagues cry and put up posters in frequent areas exhibiting feminine firearms officers carrying mops, irons and kettles as an alternative of weapons. One officer stated: ‘It is essentially the most poisonous, racist, sexist place I’ve ever labored – it is simply an unbelievable place.’
Pictured is serial rapist PC David Carrick who served within the Parliamentary and Diplomatic Safety Command
In a single occasion a black guard was known as a ‘gate monkey’ by colleagues. Officers are additionally advised it’s alright to ‘color exterior the strains’ – that means to bend and break guidelines – as a result of firearms police are tougher to exchange. The evaluate discovered that officers ‘recreation the system’ to money in on time beyond regulation and different bonuses, losing public cash on pointless abroad coaching journeys and resort rooms. The unit is called ‘time beyond regulation command’ and officers be part of to repay their weddings and prime up their pensions.
Baroness Casey stated it must be shut down, including: ‘It’s a darkish nook of the Met the place poor behaviours can simply flourish and are each tougher to identify and tougher to cease.’
A TOXIC WORKPLACE FOR WOMEN
Tales abound of younger feminine officers being ‘traded like cattle’ and moved to totally different models relying on which male officers discovered them enticing. One feminine officer recalled a colleague forcing her to sit down on his lap earlier than touching her intimately and performing a intercourse act whereas she was in communal altering rooms. On one other event he forcibly began to undress her whereas they have been on obligation.
When she complained the case was dropped and she or he was made out to be a ‘troublemaker’. One feminine officer stated: ‘The Met is a male-orientated and misogynistic atmosphere crammed with testosterone, notches on mattress posts and conquests. Senior officers and supervisors prey on females like predators.’
HOMOPHOBIA RIFE AMONG THE RANKS
Nearly one in 5 lesbian, homosexual, or bisexual workers surveyed stated they’d skilled homophobia and 14 per cent stated it was a couple of times per week.
One male officer was focused on social media with homophobic slurs and malicious rumours about medication.
WhatsApp messages have been exchanged by colleagues about stopping and looking out him whereas he was off obligation. He advised the evaluate: ‘I’m fearful of the police. I do not belief my very own organisation. I’ll range the route I stroll to keep away from strolling previous law enforcement officials when I’m not at work.’
Baroness Casey stated the pressure was institutionally homophobic, including that 30 per cent of LGBTQ+ staff stated they’d been bullied.
Pictured is Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley
‘WILFUL BLINDNESS’ TO INSTITUTIONAL RACISM
The evaluate discovered the pressure was institutionally racist and had did not deal with the ‘rot’ current for a few years. Black officers have been 81 per cent extra more likely to be topic to a misconduct case than white officers.
One senior officer was overtly requested in a big assembly in 2022: ‘Did you get to the place you bought to since you are black.’
And a black lady advised the evaluate: ‘It’s a must to try to be invisible as a black lady… If you happen to complain you get a status as being bother after which supervisors try to cross you on to different groups.’
The 363-page report additionally acknowledged disproportionality – with black Londoners being ‘overpoliced’. It concluded there was a ‘wilful blindness’ and continued failure by commanders at Scotland Yard to just accept and to handle racism.