Met Police is placed in SPECIAL MEASURES after catalogue of scandals
The Metropolitan Police was today dramatically placed in special measures for the first time ever due to concerns about ‘serious or critical shortcomings’ following a wave of scandals that blighted Cressida Dick’s tenure.
Acting commissioner Sir Stephen House will now be required to work with London Mayor Sadiq Khan to produce a remedial plan which the police inspectorate will assess.
Top officers will then be required to meet regularly with Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services to ensure the required improvements are being made.
It follows further scandals, including the failure to properly investigate serial killer Stephen Port and the revelation of racist WhatsApp messages exchanged by officers at Charing Cross Police Station.
Other calamities included the jailing of two officers for taking photos of the corpses of murdered sisters Nicole Smallman and Bibaa Henry, and Operation Midland – the disastrous probe into fake claims of VIP paedophilia.
The force was also heavily criticised for failing to stop Extinction Rebellion protests from shutting down London, with videos of officers dancing with protesters sparking claims the force was not taking the issue seriously.
A spokeswoman for the HMICFRS said: ‘We can confirm that we are now monitoring the Metropolitan Police Service through our Engage process, which provides additional scrutiny and support to help it make improvements.’
According to the policing watchdog’s website, a force enters the engage process if it is ‘not responding to a cause of concern, or if it is not succeeding in managing, mitigating or eradicating the cause of concern’.
It adds: ‘In the Engage phase, forces will develop an improvement plan to address the specific cause(s) of concern that has caused them to be placed in the advanced phase of the monitoring process. The force may receive support from external organisations such as the College of Policing or the National Police Chiefs’ Council, brokered by HMICFRS.’
The move has come at a turbulent time for the force after former Met Police chief Dame Cressida Dick stepped down from her role as commissioner in April.
Her replacement is expected to be unveiled in the summer, with Sir Stephen House currently running the force as acting commissioner.
The two candidates left in the running to replace Dame Cressida are assistant commissioner Nick Ephgrave and Sir Mark Rowley, the former head of counterterrorism.
It is also the second force to be placed on special measures in recent years. The watchdog placed Greater Manchester Police on the ‘engage’ process in 2020 after it failed to report 80,000 crimes.
Priti Patel welcomed today’s move, and said she expected the new commissioner to ‘demonstrate sustained improvements’ in the force in order to regain public trust.
Sarah Everard who was murdered by Metropolitan Police officer Wayne Couzens, in a crime which has appalled Britain
The Met’s scandal ravaged former commissioner, Cressida Dick, who stepped down in February after Sadiq Khan said he no longer had confidence in her
The Home Secretary said: ‘I expect the police to get the basics right. It is clear the Metropolitan Police Service is falling short of these expectations which is why I support the action that HMICFRS has taken today to highlight their failings – and I expect the Met and the London Mayor to take immediate action to begin addressing them.
‘The process to recruit a new Commissioner is well underway and I have made clear that the successful candidate must demonstrate sustained improvements in the Metropolitan Police Service in order to regain public trust both in London and across the country.
‘The new Commissioner will need to deliver on the public’s priorities for the police – making our streets safer, bearing down on crime and bringing more criminals to justice, while continuing to recruit thousands of new officers to protect local communities.’
London mayor Sadiq Khan – who previously withdrew his support for Dame Cressida after urging for improvements to be made – also welcomed the decision.
‘A series of appalling scandals have not only exposed deep cultural problems but have damaged the confidence of Londoners in the capital’s police service,’ he said in a statement.
‘The decision by the HMIC to now move the Met into special measures has laid bare the substantial performance failings by the force.
‘As I have been saying for some time, Londoners deserve better. That’s why we now need to see nothing less than a new contract forged between the police and the public in London.
‘This means root and branch reforms and systemic change to the Met’s performance and culture.’
The family of Child Q, who was strip-searched, said Scotland Yard has let the public down repeatedly.
They said in a statement: ‘We welcome the decision of HMICFRS to place the Metropolitan Police into special measures.
‘The Metropolitan Police has shown time and again that it cannot do its job properly and its officers’ actions have had life-changing, devastating consequences for innocent people across London, including Child Q. It is no wonder that there is little to no faith left in the Metropolitan Police.
‘We hope the additional scrutiny of special measures will result in permanent change in the force’s culture and practices.’
Mina Smallman, the mother of murdered sisters Nicole Smallman and Bibaa Henry, said it was ‘better late than never’ for the Met to be entered in the process
Mina Smallman, the mother of murdered sisters Nicole Smallman and Bibaa Henry, said it was ‘better late than never’ for the Met to be entered in the process.
She has been critical of the force after two constables were jailed for sharing images of her daughter’s bodies on WhatsApp.
Ms Smallman added that she had previously called for the Met to be put on special measures.
She told Channel 4 News: ‘I do feel terribly sorry that some of the things that I highlighted, with the selfies of our daughters, if they had acted more swiftly, perhaps Couzens would have been stopped in his tracks and Sarah would still be with us.’
She added that people have been challenging the Met on its practices since the murder of Stephen Lawrence in 1993.
‘It’s the kind of papering over the cracks, trying to look as though you’re perfect,’ she said. ‘And the only people who get away with that are the people who are the perpetrators.’
A spokesman for the Met said: ‘We recognise the cumulative impact of events and problems that the Met is dealing with.
‘We understand the impact this has had on communities and we share their disappointment. We are determined to be a police service Londoners can be proud of. We are talking to the Inspectorate about next steps.’
A damning watchdog report cited numerous fiascos, including the murder of Sarah Everard by serving officer Wayne Couzens
Revealed: Year after year of failings at Britain’s largest force
OPERATION MIDLAND
In 2014 the notorious Operation Midland was sanctioned by Dame Cressida Dick, who later went on to become Scotland Yard commissioner.
Five years later, when the embarrassing operation began seriously unravelling, she refused to allow an inquiry into the conduct of officers involved.
This was despite former High Court judge Sir Richard Henriques revealing how officers had used false evidence to obtain a search warrant for the raids. Dame Cressida said that an inquiry would be ‘completely improper’.
A report in 2020 found the Metropolitan Police was more interested in covering up mistakes than learning from them.
Dame Cressida was also slammed by the families of victims of VIP paedophile ring fantasist Carl Beech, whose spurious allegations were investigated by police – ruining the lives and reputations of those he accused
The Hampshire home of the Queen’s confidant, Lord Bramall – who was also former head of the Armed Forces – had been invaded by police with search warrants in the early hours on the basis of spurious allegations of abuse by paedophile Carl Beech, a palpable fantasist.
After the Daily Mail exposed him, Beech was jailed. Before he died, D-Day hero Lord Bramall told his son Nick that ‘he had never been so mortally wounded, even in battle’.
Former Tory MP Harvey Proctor, who received a substantial payout after his life was ruined by the disastrous paedophile inquiry, last night expressed his delight at Dame Cressida’s downfall.
He was among seven high-profile victims of the Met – including Baroness Lawrence, whose son Stephen’s 1993 murder investigation was botched by racist officers – who last year came together in a Mail interview to accuse Dame Cressida of having ‘presided over a culture of incompetence’.
Wayne Couzens
SARAH EVERARD
In March last year, 33-year-old marketing executive Sarah Everard was abducted, raped and murdered by serving Met police officer Wayne Couzens.
It then emerged Couzens had not been vetted properly and Met officers had failed to investigate after he was reported flashing women days before the murder.
But perhaps the worst moment for Dame Cressida Dick was her officers’ heavy-handed policing of a vigil for the murdered woman at Clapham Common in South London.
Photographs of protesting women being pinned down by arresting officers who cited Covid restrictions on gatherings were published around the world, sparking condemnation.
When Couzens was convicted, it was dubbed Scotland Yard’s ‘darkest day’. Dame Cressida stood outside the Old Bailey and humbly admitted the murder had corroded trust in the police and brought ‘shame’ on her force.
MURDER PHOTOS
In December last year, two Scotland Yard officers who took photos of the bodies of two murder victims were jailed.
The sisters who died – Nicole Smallman, 27, and 46-year-old Bibaa Henry, were black and there were accusations of racism. 2021 was also the force’s worst ever year for teenage killings, with 30 deaths.
Bibaa Henry, 46, and Nicole Smallman, 27, who were stabbed to death in Wembley last year
Further mock-ups of messages sent by a male officer during another shocking conversation on WhatsApp
CHARING CROSS
Earlier this year, details emerged of horrific messages exchanged by officers at Charing Cross police station, by an official watchdog report.
Some 14 officers were investigated as a result, with two found to have a case to answer for gross misconduct.
One was sacked and another resigned before he would have been dismissed. Another two had already left, while in some of the other cases the Independent Office of Police Conduct found ‘no further action should be taken’.
Incredibly, nine officers kept their jobs and two were promoted – but their sickening WhatsApp messages exposed an ongoing culture of racism, sexism and bullying.
It appears this sickening episode was the straw which finally broke the back. For, by the end, it was clear that confidence in the police chief had gone.
XR PROTESTS
In 2019, the force was widely condemned for its ‘light-touch’ policing of Extinction Rebellion protests, which blocked several key areas of London.
Under her watch, career eco-activists from XR and its off-shoot Insulate Britain were given free rein to cause mayhem.
Ambulances were stopped from getting through, while businesses and workers were forced to halt their activities.
A low point came when police were filmed asking road-blocking protesters if they needed anything – rather than just arresting them.
DANIEL MORGAN
Perhaps the most jaw-dropping condemnation of Dame Cressida came in June of last year when an official report described her force as ‘institutionally corrupt’.
And far from blaming the fiasco on a predecessor, it concluded that she had personally placed ‘hurdles’ in the way of a search for the truth about the death of Daniel Morgan – a private investigator who was brutally murdered in a south London pub car park in 1987.
Daniel Morgan was investigating claims of corruption within the Metropolitan Police when he was murdered in 1987 – and the force failed him and his family ever since. His brother Alastair told the media that Cressida Dick should resign
Dame Cressida was accused of ‘obfuscation’ for thwarting the Morgan inquiry team’s attempts to access sensitive documents, leading to delays that cost the taxpayer millions. The report by Baroness O’Loan found that Scotland Yard was ‘institutionally corrupt’.
The Met has never found Mr Morgan’s murderer, but there were long-standing allegations of police corruption over the killing and the aftermath.
Mr Morgan’s brother Alastair also joined Baroness Lawrence, Harvey Proctor and Lord Bramall in a devastating and unprecedented joint interview with the Daily Mail.
They all signed a letter to the PM demanding Dame Cressida’s resignation. Instead she clung on.
Stephen Port
STEPHEN PORT
An inquest jury ruled in December that failures by Met detectives contributed to the deaths of a serial killer’s three final victims.
Stephen Port killed four men, all aged in their early 20s, by giving them overdoses of the date rape drug gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB) at his east London home between June 2014 and September 2015.
He was jailed for life at the Old Bailey in 2016 for the murders and a string of sex assaults.
The inquest found police failed to carry out even basic checks after each murder.
A solicitor for the victims’ families said the Met’s actions were driven in part by homophobia.
Last week watchdog the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) announced it will re-investigate the Met’s handling of the case.
BIANCA WILLIAMS
In April it emerged that five Met officers are to face a gross misconduct hearing over their stop and search of Team GB athlete Bianca Williams in 2020.
The sprinter and partner Ricardo Dos Santos, the Portuguese athlete, were stopped in their car in west London, and separated from their three-month-old son who was in the back of the vehicle.
Nothing illegal was found in the search and the couple, who are black, claim they were racially profiled.
STRIP SEARCHES
Last month the IOPC confirmed it was investigating a series of cases which involved teenage girls who were on their period being strip-searched by Met officers.
Two of the cases, involving a black girl named only as ‘Child Q’ and a mixed race girl known as ‘Olivia’, took place in December 2020. A third case is also under scrutiny.
Child Q was strip-searched at her school in Hackney, east London, by two female after being wrongly suspected of carrying drugs.