By Gabriel Princewill And David Young-
A senior lecturer at Portsmouth University has called for a root and branch transplantation of the Metropolitan Police force.
Boss, Mark Rowley has been criticised for failing to accept that institutional racism exists in the Met police force.
Senior lecturer, criminologist and former police officer, John Fox(pictured) from the University Of Sussex , who is also a researcher of police culture and oversight, criticised Met Commissioner, Mark Rawley, for using phraseology to hide from the obvious, after accepting that work needs to done, but stubbornly refused to accept that racism in the force was institutional.
The prominent lecturer has called for the Met to ”create a hostile environment for racists and misogynists in which they are worried they will be caught whenever they are at work, not just when they know an investigation is brewing”. He criticised the failure of the organisation to effectively address the continuous level of racism and sexism in the force which has almost irreversibly scared the image of the Met police
Mr Fox points to the longstanding racism and misogyny in the Met which has dragged down the reputation of every other police force in the Uk, as he alludes to past recommendations he has made for The Met to be divided and broken up, in order to achieve the needed progressive change in the force.
The eradication of rotten police officers who continue to heap shame on a police force that ought to be a bastion of justice and moral standards, has continued to be a failed mission for those sitting at the pinnacle of the profession with the tools to command the needed change.
Rather than being a bulwark against tyranny and upholding laudable principles, the Met has allowed a culture of oppression, marginalisation, and almost boundless acts of transgression fester in its midst, at the expense of the overarching goal of maintaining the law.
The Metropolitan police has been perpetually dogged with scandal after scandal as the bullying culture of clear discrimination , cover ups, and shamelessness drastically reduces the respect the force naturally should command. It has deteriorated to one of lack f accountability and degradation, its only saving grace being the whistleblowers and honest officers among them.
Fox, who deeply cares about how the public perceives the police and genuinely wants to see its integrity restored, said a toxic culture is too deep within the foundations of the Metropolitan force.
He described good people in the Met as being ”scared” to speak out because of fear of losing their job, and the fact that many of their managers are just as bad”.
Baroness Louise Casey’s report revealed that London’s Metropolitan police force is institutionally racist, misogynistic and homophobic- a similar verdict arrived at by the incompetent investigation into the murder of Stephen Lawrence by Sir William MacPherson , who also the Met was institutionally racist.
The Met’s commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, has accepted the findings of the Casey review and acknowledged that work needs to be done, but rejected the “institutional” label to describe the Met’s problems.
”Racism and sexism by officers towards their own colleagues and the public has been allowed to flourish unchecked by the organisation”, Coe says
”For Rowley to quibble about phraseology, and disagree with this term because it is “political”, is a sign that he is already trying to protect the Met from external criticism – an example of the harmful and excessive hubris Casey describes.
”What stands out most to me is that the good people within the Met workforce are scared. They are afraid of their own colleagues, but also scared of speaking out about them because they fear their managers are just as bad. And they are worried about losing their jobs if they rock the boat”, citing an officer who told the inquiry they are sacred of losing their job.
Intrusive And Aggressive Vetting
In his outstanding article for The Conversation.Com. the expert criminologist also recommends an intrusive and aggressive vetting and monitoring in the police force, something that has been recommended several times to the Met and The Home Office by the Mayor Of London, and The Eye Of Media.Com for a long time.
One of the shocking revelations to well informed brits last year was the painful fact numerous convicts have been allowed to join the force, their criminal records inadvertently overlooked not just by their bosses, but also the branch of government under whose jurisdiction they fall, who are aware of this shocking trend, but appear to turn a blind eye for reasons best known to them.
Unscrupulous police officers have been found to be members of organised gangs in the past, some have joined the force with known records of domestic violence, and of theft and robbery, the sort of unthinkable reality readers from abroad who hold the standards of British culture and principles high will be shocked to discover.
Early this year the a probe into how the finger prints of an armed marks man was found n a gun discovered in a police raid in which he was not involved began , in one of the most shocking news to involve a serving police officer.
Following the original revelation of the news, this publication sought to uncover how exactly an officer’s finger print could be found on a gun discovered in a raid involving a criminal gang. The most plausible explanation was the possibility he may have infiltrated the gang covertly for the purposes of tipping off his colleagues, but such hypothetical scenario would not require a probe , since the internal police club would have been aware of what was going on.
This publication has also in the past also been informed in confidence from credible sources about serving police officers who sell cannabis on a low key outside working hours, without receiving any precise details of their identity, and no appetite for the editorial to pursue such stories, which are only good for sighs and wows.
Expert Cox has a sound all round insight into the police force, with some fresh ideas about how to make the continuation of institutional racism and misogyny in the force difficult.
Polygraph Idea
The eminent criminology researcher recommends the good idea of using a polygraph as a screening tool for prospective officers, one already used in the English criminal justice system to monitor convicted sex offenders, with a claimed 80-90% reliability.
Using it as a screening tool for police applicants, as a useful indication of whether to trust officers joining the force and determining whether further enquiries are necessary is one of the best ideas presented in vetting police officers hoping to be recruited in the force, which has a bullying culture.
”The Met needs to create a hostile environment for racists and misogynists in which they are worried they will be caught whenever they are at work, not just when they know an investigation is brewing”, he says.
”It doesn’t matter that officers will then be more careful what they say openly and what they say on WhatsApp. That is the point. What I am proposing is a significant disruption to normal workplace privacy and would likely be met with resistance. But if sold correctly, it should empower the good officers, giving them confidence that the commissioner is serious about protecting them.
He has long suggested a way to break up and restructure the Met, which he says is too large to govern effectively. Its pattern of misogyny, racism, misconduct and outright crime has dragged down the reputation of every other police force in the country. Only one in five people report feeling “very positive” towards the police in England and Wales.
The Metropolitan police force is at a critical juncture where a complete metamorphosis is needed to return the entire collective force to the requisite standard of honourability befitting of the job and its accompanying responsibility of law and order.
Continued disorder and breaches of the rule of law in the very force the public ought to respect will gradually make mockery of what it represents and those charged with the duty of governing the police force like the Home Office and The Mayor of London.
Many of the insightful recommendations of Mr Fox will be presented to Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police and The Home Office.
His invaluable ideas truly ought to be considered by the Uk government if they are serious about instituting the necessary change in the police force, for the sake of the British public and some of the brilliant, amiable and genuine officers in the force, whose legitimate efforts should should not be forgotten.