Friday, February 11, 2022
An opportunity for reform
AS the Guardian reports, Dame Cressida Dick has been forced out as head of the Metropolitan police, after London’s mayor accused her of failing to deal with a culture of misogyny and racism within Britain’s biggest force.
They add that Sadiq Khan had put Dick “on notice” last Wednesday that she had to rapidly reform Scotland Yard or lose his support for her leadership. His confidence in her was shaken to breaking point by a scandal at Charing Cross police station where officers shared racist, sexist, misogynistic and Islamophobic messages. Two of the officers investigated were promoted, while nine were left to serve in the Met:
Dick was also personally criticised for the obstruction of an official inquiry into police corruption. The panel investigating the 1987 unsolved murder of Daniel Morgan lambasted Dick and labelled the Met as “institutionally corrupt”, which Dick denies.
A big expansion of stop and search resulted in falling confidence in policing in black communities, and confidence generally in the Met fell dramatically during Dick’s term in office.
It is my view that Cressida Dick should have gone after the Met leadership’s inept handling of the murder of Sarah Everard in March 2021 by a serving Met officer, and the subsquent fiasco of police officers breaking up a peaceful vigil in Clapham Common. Nevertheless, there is now an opportunity for reform, which must be taken by the London Mayor and Home Office, if we are not to see a repeat of the problems that have beset the force for years.
Ruth Davison, of the charity Refuge, is absolutely right when she says: “Cressida Dick presided over an institution that saw police officers displaying misogynistic behaviour and committing horrific acts of violence against women, time and time again. But one resignation at the top doesn’t mean the police have solved their misogyny problem. The police service in this country needs root and branch reform.”
Replacing one Commissioner with another may not be enough, and any successor must avoid going native. This is not an appointment that can be rushed into. If the Met's problems are institutional then there needs to be a shake-up at all levels, and whoever takes over at the top, if indeed, that is one person or several, needs to make that a priority.
They add that Sadiq Khan had put Dick “on notice” last Wednesday that she had to rapidly reform Scotland Yard or lose his support for her leadership. His confidence in her was shaken to breaking point by a scandal at Charing Cross police station where officers shared racist, sexist, misogynistic and Islamophobic messages. Two of the officers investigated were promoted, while nine were left to serve in the Met:
Dick was also personally criticised for the obstruction of an official inquiry into police corruption. The panel investigating the 1987 unsolved murder of Daniel Morgan lambasted Dick and labelled the Met as “institutionally corrupt”, which Dick denies.
A big expansion of stop and search resulted in falling confidence in policing in black communities, and confidence generally in the Met fell dramatically during Dick’s term in office.
It is my view that Cressida Dick should have gone after the Met leadership’s inept handling of the murder of Sarah Everard in March 2021 by a serving Met officer, and the subsquent fiasco of police officers breaking up a peaceful vigil in Clapham Common. Nevertheless, there is now an opportunity for reform, which must be taken by the London Mayor and Home Office, if we are not to see a repeat of the problems that have beset the force for years.
Ruth Davison, of the charity Refuge, is absolutely right when she says: “Cressida Dick presided over an institution that saw police officers displaying misogynistic behaviour and committing horrific acts of violence against women, time and time again. But one resignation at the top doesn’t mean the police have solved their misogyny problem. The police service in this country needs root and branch reform.”
Replacing one Commissioner with another may not be enough, and any successor must avoid going native. This is not an appointment that can be rushed into. If the Met's problems are institutional then there needs to be a shake-up at all levels, and whoever takes over at the top, if indeed, that is one person or several, needs to make that a priority.
