When the Casey review1Baroness Casey Review. Final report: an independent review into the standards of behaviour and internal culture of the Metropolitan Police Service, March 2023. (the review) was published, it unsurprisingly led to widespread news coverage of its damning indictment of the Metropolitan Police. It was commissioned in October 2021 by Dame Cressida Dick, then Commissioner of the Met. It followed the sentencing of a serving Met officer to whole life imprisonment for the kidnap, rape and murder of Sarah Everard in September 2021. While this had in itself prompted significant public concern – and depleted trust in the police – in the immediate years running up to that imprisonment (and subsequently) there were a number of other incidents that undermined public confidence in the police, including: the handling of a vigil in March 2021 marking the murder (few can forget the sight of police officers wrestling peaceful women to the ground and cuffing them); in June 2021, the publication of the independent panel report into the murder of Daniel Morgan in 1987, which identified police corruption in the Met; in December 2021, the inquest into the murders of Anthony Walgate, Gabriel Kovari, Daniel Whitworth and Jack Taylor, which found that fundamental failings by the Met ‘probably’ contributed to three of the four deaths; in December 2021, the jailing of two Met officers for taking and sharing photos of two murdered women, Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman; in February 2022, the Independent Office for Police Conduct’s (IOPC’s) publication of Operation Hotton findings, which identified discrimination, misogyny, harassment and bullying, including racist, sexist and homophobic messages on social media, among officers based primarily at Charing Cross station; in March 2022, the publication of a Local Child Safeguarding Practice Review following an incident at an East London school; and in December 2022/January 2023, the arrest, suspension and subsequent guilty pleas of a serving Met officer to 49 offences relating to 12 victims, including 24 counts of rape, committed between 2003 and 2020.

The review was asked to:

The review was wide-ranging: it listened to and engaged with many officers, former and current staff and volunteers, stakeholder groups and individuals; held or attended around 350 meetings and conducted visits to all 12 of the Met’s Basic Command Units and 11 of the other operational units that make up the Met; conducted surveys of 6,751 current and former personnel; and polled more than 1,200 Londoners. It also analysed a vast array of public and unpublished data, research, practice and learning from the Met and other sectors and countries.

Discrimination is considered specifically in chapter 9 of the report, although, unsurprisingly, it also appears elsewhere: for example, the review found systemic and institutional bias in the misconduct system. The discrimination chapter covers homophobia, sexism and misogyny, and racism – all areas where it was concluded there is institutional discrimination. Disability is not indicated as falling within the institutional discrimination category, though it features significantly throughout the report. For example:

The report states, at page 205, that accounts provided during the review, and comments following the interim report, indicate that some officers, staff and others believe there is unfairness in the system related to disability, sexuality and other factors. However, neither the data examined, nor the recording practices on which the data is based, were of sufficient quality to allow such factors to be evidenced to the same extent as the systemic bias evident on race and gender. It said: ‘Better data recording by the Met will be necessary in future to support any improvements in tackling all forms of bias.’

Overall, the review found that while the Met’s relationship with London’s LGBTQ+ community is very different from that of the last century, it has become poorer in recent years – with trust having fallen at a faster rate than other Londoners over the last seven years. This has coincided with criticism of the handling of the serial murders of Anthony Walgate, Gabriel Kovari, Daniel Whitworth and Jack Taylor.

A significant difficulty faced by the review in considering the structural issues around homophobia is that the Met collects no data on the sexual orientation of its own employees. This, the review concludes, has made it difficult to identify the true extent to which homophobic discrimination by individual officers is reinforced through Met culture, processes and systems. However, the review was able to draw on information and accounts already in the public domain, as well as interviews, to consider the culture in the Met; as well as considering the response to the serial murders referred to above.

The review heard evidence of open negative comments on the intranet; over-sexualisation under the guise of ‘banter’; and the expectation that these should be accepted as ‘carrier culture’2‘Carrier culture’ is a colloquial policing term, referring to behaviour in the police carrier (minibus). or banter, in order to fit in (this was similar for other minority groups). Issues tended to be sidestepped or moved on (for example, move the complaining officer, or the bullied officer, rather than the senior officer). Lack of victim care and empathy came up repeatedly.

When it came to sexism and misogyny, there was more statistical data for the review to draw on, as well as personal evidence from officers and staff.

Women are still underrepresented in the Met compared with the general population (in December 2022, 31 per cent compared with 51.5 per cent of the population – though representing a steady increase in new recruits). It would take another 30 years to achieve gender balance at the same rate of recruitment. Women remain underrepresented in all supervisory and management roles, and they make up less than a third of officers in all ranks above constable level. Proportions of Black, Asian and ethnic minority women are also highest in the lower and detective ranks, but they make up a very small proportion of the workforce overall (seven per cent of detective constables, four per cent of constables and only two to three per cent at inspector and chief inspector ranks). The report noted: ‘Women, especially women of colour, need to work harder than their male counterparts at senior level’ (page 265).

However, ‘it was the day-to-day experience of sexism, bias, bullying and misogyny against women employees that the review team found concerning’ (page 267). Experiences ranged from patronising comments and downplaying of women’s achievements to inappropriate sexual comments, unwanted attention, harassment and violence. These are routinely accepted and seen as ‘just the way things are’ and women are expected to put up with it ‘so you just get on with it’. Women are told that their achievements are only a result of their being attractive or ‘having slept with the right man’. The IOPC investigation into the conduct of officers at Charing Cross, which makes for particularly grim reading, is quoted from extensively. The review team heard attempts to downplay its findings – they were told it was a ‘one off’, a ‘closed unit’ that had now been shut down, and that it had taken place four years ago, as if it couldn’t possibly happen today, without explaining why that should be the case (page 271). The review found that some senior Met officers clearly did not grasp the seriousness of the issues it uncovered.

The review notes, against the background of the 1999 Macpherson Inquiry into the murder of Stephen Lawrence and its finding of institutional racism, that while the force is very different from that of the 1990s, it has continued to be described as institutionally racist. Lately, its position has been to admit to individuals with racist views, and that there is work to be done with London’s communities, but to maintain that the organisation is not institutionally racist.

The review found that it has improved the ethnic diversity of its workforce and compares favourably with other urban police forces in England and Wales. But representation of Black, Asian and other ethnic minority officers falls far short of the diversity in London’s communities and is even more unrepresentative at higher ranks or among women. At current recruitment rates, it will take at least another 39 years to come anywhere close to reflecting London’s ethnic diversity. Higher attrition rates among Black, Asian and ethnic minority officers further exacerbate this challenge. The conclusion was that a more radical strategy is required to properly reflect London’s diversity in the Met, including tackling corrosive and racist myths about needing to ‘lower the bar’ to do so, and addressing the racism experienced by officers and staff in the Met.

The report states that 46 per cent of Black and 33 per cent of Asian officers and staff said that they personally experienced racism at work in response to a review survey. The review found disproportionality and systemic bias in the misconduct system. In every year since 2013/14, Black and Asian officers and staff were significantly more likely to be the subject of a misconduct allegation. Black officers or staff members in the Met in 2021/22 were 81 per cent more likely to receive a misconduct allegation than their White colleagues, and Asian officers and staff were 55 per cent more likely. There were few, if any, signs of improvement over time. Allegations against Black and Asian officers were also more likely to result in a ‘case to answer’ decision. There are numerous examples given of racism experienced by officers; as with homophobic and misogynistic/sexist behaviour, there is an expectation that it will be put up with. A former senior officer told the review that officers of colour across the Met tell him ‘when they see racism, they don’t tell their superiors’ (page 306).

Trust and confidence are lowest among Black and Mixed ethnicity Londoners, and have been, persistently, for years. Black Londoners are under-protected – disproportionately the victims of homicides and domestic abuse – and over-policed – facing disproportionate use of stop and search, the absence of cogent explanations of why this happens, the disproportionate use of Tasers and batons, and the overuse of intrusive searches on Black children. The review concluded that these ‘point to a collective and continued failure by the Met to understand, accept and address the existence of racism at all levels in the organisation’. It found ‘complacency in the Met to tackle problems, a lack of curiosity about what people of colour are telling them; and a wilful blindness to seeing the evidence all around them, within and outside the Met’ (page 329).