Met Sexism Exposes A 'We Know Best' Attitude Which Risks Betraying Police Principles

• Published date: 15 June 2022
• Subject Matter: Government, Public Sector, Criminal Law, Human Rights, Crime
• Law Firm: Hickman & Rose
• Author: Peter Csemiczky

As the Home Secretary Priti Patel searches for a replacement for Cressida Dick as Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Peter Csemiczky, partner in the Serious and General Crime department, argues that the various sexism scandals Dick oversaw are symptomatic of a more fundamental problem at the heart of the Met.

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Cressida Dick's departure as Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police has led some to question to what extent a toxic work culture within the force enabled the sexism scandals which have done so much damage to the force's reputation.

Given the number and nature of the failings in cases such as those of Sarah Everard, Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman, Stephen Port, and the damning IOPC report into behaviour at Charing Cross Police Station, it was inevitable that Dick had to step aside.

But these scandals did not emerge from nowhere. They are, in my view, the symptoms of a deeper problem within the Met: one which requires a complete rethink of how the force operates.

Sarah Everard

On 13^th March 2021, a public vigil held on Clapham Common in south London to commemorate Sarah Everard - who was murdered ten days earlier by serving Met officer Wayne Couzens - descended into chaos. Multiple women were arrested.

Commissioner Dick's response to the resulting storm of criticism was telling. In a press statement she explained 'my officers' were put in 'an invidious position' at the vigil, because, she claimed, of the health risk posed by a group of peaceful women attending a demonstration outside.

There was no apology. Just defence. Dick's comments revealed a mindset in which the police and the communities it is meant to serve are disconnected entities, with mutually exclusive interests.

Six months later, on the occasion of Couzens' conviction for kidnap, rape and murder, Dick issued another public statement.

This time she did apologise, but what for was not clear. She made no mention of any issues within the Met which may have contributed to Couzens' offending (something which will be examined at public inquiry later this year). Indeed, far from admitting any failings - and in stark contrast to the evidence of Couzens' offending - Dick's statement claimed the Met was 'full of people who are good, who work all their lives to protect others.' She went on:

'All of us in the Met are sickened, angered and devastated by this man's truly dreadful crimes. Everyone in policing feels betrayed.'

Here again, we see the expression of an institutional solipsism...