Met Police face long road to recovery - Braverman

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If you're just joining us, let's get you up to speed on the damning report into the Met Police published earlier today.

Here are the key lines:

• The head of the Met Police has admitted to mismanagement and cultural failings in his force – after a review found institutional racism, misogyny and homophobia at the heart of Scotland Yard
• But Sir Mark Rowley has been criticised by former senior officers for refusing to accept the problems are "institutional"
• The home secretary says the force has a "long road to recovery", the mayor of London says it is one of the darkest days in the Met's history
• Labour accused the government of not having a plan to fix the force, and said there was a danger Casey's review "just becomes another report"
• Mina Smallman, whose daughters Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman were murdered and then pictures of their bodies shared by officers, says she feels "vindicated but also angered" by Baroness Casey’s report
• Among the changes recommend in the Casey report are an immediate change to vetting standards, and a dedicated women's protection service to deal with rape and sexual offences

Casey’s conclusions are damning, but the report is not without praise for officers and the force’s work.

“Policing attracts the best of humanity,” she writes. “I have met many shining examples during this review – those who uphold the highest of standards and who put themselves at risk in order to protect the rest of us.”

She praises the Met’s “remarkable expertise” and “incisive handling of threats and incidents of terrorism”, as well as pointing out many reports of “individual officers going the extra mile with courage and good humour”.

She also notes:

• Despite an overall decline in trust and confidence in the Met, the two most recent surveys have shown a small improvement
• Some staff said the organisation’s attitude towards the LGBTQ+ community had improved “considerably”, and some LGBTQ+ officers and staff “spoke of their pride about how the Met actively celebrates diversity”

Let's bring you another perspective from a serving female police officer we are referring to as "Holly", who spoke anonymously to BBC Radio 4 a little earlier.

"The first thing I did this morning was read as much as I could of the Baroness Casey report. It was like reading my life story on a PDF, it felt really sad," Holly says.

"It was 1,652 days in between me reporting my perpetrator and him being told he was no longer fit to serve in the police force."

Seeing the report was "validating but also extremely depressing", she says.

Listen back to what she said on Woman's Hour here.

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Mina Smallman, whose daughters Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman were murdered and then pictures of their bodies shared by police officers, says she feels “vindicated but also angered” by Baroness Casey’s report.

She tells the BBC she's “disappointed” by the Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley’s refusal to use the term “institutional” when referring to the force’s racism, sexism, misogyny and homophobia.

Quote Message: It's not a time for being clever. It's not a time for wordplay or semantics. It's a time for action.” from Mina Smallman Mother of Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman

It's not a time for being clever. It's not a time for wordplay or semantics. It's a time for action.”

Mina added that black people will read the report and feel “we’ve been saying this for years”.

Asked whether she has confidence in Rowley to bring changes, she says: “I think everybody wants to see the results.

"Until we name and shame those senior officers who met with Couzens and didn't do their job, and some of these people who were doing the misconduct and allowed people to go free, then I think we won't see the most decisive move that needs to happen.”

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has promised to unveil details of Labour's "national mission on crime" later this week, following Baroness Casey's review.

In a press conference a short while ago, he said every police force in the country needs to "wake up".

Take a look:

Met PoliceCopyright: Met Police

Among the many damning criticisms of the Metropolitan Police, two specialist units come under particularly searing scrutiny - including one where rapists Wayne Couzens and David Carrick both worked.

The men were armed officers in the Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command, a unit Baroness Louise Casey describes in her report as a "dark corner" of the Met.

The other team she singles out is the Met's Specialist Firearms unit, known as MO19, a team where "normal rules do not seem to apply."

A whole chapter of the 363-page report highlights serious concerns, with the toxic cultures of bullying, racism and ableism, and elitist attitudes in the units.

Baroness Casey began her review of the Met after the abduction, rape and murder of Sarah Everard by Couzens, then a serving police officer.

While carrying out her inquiry, Carrick, another Met officer, was convicted of a series of rapes, sexual offences and torture of women.

Read more here

Let's take a step back for a moment and look at Baroness Casey's recommendations as she concluded her 360-page review.

She suggested 16 actions - here's are some of the key ones:

• An immediate change to vetting standards to guard against those who want to abuse an officer's powers. All firearms officers to be thoroughly re-vetted
• Setting up a dedicated women’s protection service and specialist teams to deal with rape and sexual offences
• Creating a children’s strategy to prevent children being seen as "threats" rather than in need of protection, especially those from black and ethnic minority backgrounds
• A “fundamental reset” of stop-and-search police powers, including a charter on how and when these are used
• Disbanding the Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection unit in its current form and setting higher vetting and behaviour standards in specialist armed teams
• A new, independent team to reform the misconduct process, with a focus on handling sexual misconduct, domestic abuse and discrimination

One of the most striking testimonies in Baroness Casey's review came from a female police officer who described how one unit’s freezers - which held and preserved evidence obtained from victims of sexual violence - would be so full it would take three officers to close them.

This officer - named G in the report - said one freezer broke down last summer, meaning all of the evidence inside had to be destroyed, and the alleged rape cases had to be dropped.

Home Secretary Suella Braverman was quizzed on this in the Commons earlier by Labour MP Catherine West. Watch their exchange below:

That issue of the word "institutional" has come up again, with Starmer asked how he can have confidence in the Met Police commissioner when he hasn't accepted the use of the word "institutional" to describe racism, misogyny and homophobia in the force.

Starmer says the commissioner "knows the scale of the change that's needed and he's begun some of those steps already".

He adds that he does accept that word, and the problem with not doing so means you "end up with the 'bad apple theory' and don't do the full structural reform that you need".

And that brings the press conference to a close.

PA MediaCopyright: PA Media

Casey suggested that the Met could be divided up if change didn't happen fast enough, but Starmer says: "I don't think breaking up into smaller units is the change we need".

Simply moving around bits of the Met is not the proper answer, he says.

After setting out more things Labour would do if it was in power - including imposing mandatory vetting standards for officers across all forces - Starmer stresses the urgent need for change.

"I've seen reports come and go, moments like this missed," he says.

He adds: "The biggest danger today is that this just becomes another report."

Starmer continues: "There needs to be a reckoning and there needs to be change." He calls for the biggest overhaul in policing since the Met was created, nearly 200 years ago.

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Starmer starts by promising he will unveil details of Labour's "national mission on crime" this week - one of the party's key five priorities.

Previewing one of his announcements, he promises that a Labour government would "raise confidence in every police force to its highest level".

He insists this pledge is "ambitious, serious and measurable".

Starmer has a message to any police forces outside London who don't recognise themselves in the damning Casey Review: "Wake up."

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Labour's shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper tells reporters there cannot be an "endless cycle of watershed moments and warm words when nothing changes", saying it lets policing and communities down.

"Standards must be upheld and major reforms are needed," she says, before passing over to Starmer.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper are now holding a press conference in London following the publication of an excoriating report into the capital's police force.

We'll make sure to let you know the key lines.

Shabnam ChaudhriCopyright: Shabnam Chaudhri

Shabnam Chaudhri, former detective superintendent of the Met Police, tells BBC Radio 5 Live she’s "disgusted" by the findings of Casey’s report.

"I am disgusted that a Muslim officer had bacon put in his boots, gay officers being vilified by other colleagues and female officers having to discuss their sex lives.

"It's no longer a few bad apples, this is a barrel of rotten apples that are tarnishing the integrity of the Metropolitan Police," she says.

"I want to believe the vast majority of police officers are decent but when you’re reading a vast report that tells you otherwise then you know that there is a serious problem within policing."

Ali Hassan AliCopyright: Ali Hassan Ali

Ali Hassan Ali worked in the Met Police for nearly three years before deciding to leave the force.

"I found the organisation to be extremely toxic and not what I signed up for initially," he tells BBC Radio 5 Live.

"It's good officers like me that had good intentions and came from the communities within London, understood the communities and now I’ve left.

"I believe being a police officer should be an honourable thing, but it will take years to turn this ship around and it’s unfortunate for me to say that."

A little earlier Labour's Yvette Cooper accused the home secretary of being "dangerously complacent" in her reaction to Casey's scathing review.

She said Suella Braverman's response was "simply words" without action - take a look:

MPs are still speaking in the Commons, but we're going to leave Westminster and hear from people who have had direct experiences with the Metropolitan Police.

I'm going to take over editing this page now from my colleague James FitzGerald, who's enjoying a well-earned break. I'm joined by Gem O'Reilly and Malu Cursino, who've been across this coverage since this morning. Stick with us.

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Casey's blistering review of the Metropolitan Police has sparked conversations across the country this morning - here's a flavour of how some key figures have reacted:

• Met Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley: "The findings are brutal and we have let Londoners down."
• Home Secretary Suella Braverman: "The vast majority of the people who serve in our Met Police force are honest, decent, brave professionals but it is clear there have been systemic problems for far too long."
• Ken Marsh, head of Met Federation which represents 30,000 officers: "There are some severe issues ... but I don't accept that it's every single man and woman in my organisation."
• Reclaim These Streets co-founder Jamie Klingler: "[The report] vindicates the victims that come to me every day and vindicates what we've been saying for years."

We've still got an ear across the Commons, where the home secretary is continuing to answer questions about Casey's damning report.

A little earlier she described the current state of the Met Police - take a look: