Police Federation chair accepts Met is institutionally racist, sexist and homophobic

Steve Hartshorn says making his personal views public is an act of ‘leadership’, after damning Casey report

The head of the Police Federation of England and Wales has said the Metropolitan police is institutionally racist, misogynistic and homophobic, becoming the first leader of a major British policing institution to accept the findings of a devastating report last month.

In an interview with the Guardian marking the 30th anniversary of Stephen Lawrence’s murder, Steve Hartshorn said he expected a “backlash” for his comments, which he stressed were his personal view.

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Essex pub that displayed golly dolls seized by police is vandalised

White Hart Inn in Grays, which has been the subject of a reported hate crime, daubed with graffiti and has windows damaged

An Essex pub where police confiscated golly dolls has been vandalised with graffiti and damage to five windows occurring early on Sunday morning, police have said.

The incident occurred at about 12.40am at White Hart Inn in Grays. Essex police said they have deployed extra patrols in the area.

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Two Met police officers sacked over messages about Katie Price’s son

Officers sent offensive messages about Harvey Price, who is disabled, to colleagues in WhatsApp group

Two Metropolitan police officers have been dismissed over offensive messages that they shared in a WhatsApp group, including some that made fun of Katie Price’s disabled son.

The two serving officers and six former colleagues were found guilty of gross misconduct after sending sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic and ableist comments in a group called Secret Squirrel Shit between 2016 and 2018.

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Joe Biden due to address Irish parliament after saying US relationship with Ireland getting ‘stronger and stronger’ – politics live

US president praises emerging relationship with Ireland to taoiseach Leo Varadkar

Chris Philp, the policing minister, has published an article in the Telegraph today explaining the changes being introduced to the way that police record crimes in England and Wales. The changes are being introduced following recommendations from the National Police Chiefs’ Council.

Philp says:

Firstly, we are dropping the requirement for police to record some crimes twice or more, reintroducing the previous “principal offence” rule. This will remove multiple entries on the database which effectively re-record the same incident many times.

Accurate crime recording is vital, and these changes will better reflect victims’ experience. Recording crime does not equate to investigating crime and the police will continue to pursue all offences involved in the incident.

Accurate records of crime must be kept, and crimes will be recorded. These changes to the crime-recording rules will enable police to target and focus investigations and provide victims the service they deserve.

Ambulance response times for all types of emergencies have got longer, including for life-threatening illnesses and injuries, but remain below record levels.

Meanwhile around one in 10 people arriving at major A&E departments are having to wait more than 12 hours before being admitted, transferred or discharged – the first time data of this kind has been published.

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Commissioner vows to clean up Met as force faces biggest crisis since 1970s

Sir Mark Rowley vows to ‘lift the stone’ – but says rooting out every unfit police officer could take years

Scotland Yard is battling its biggest corruption crisis since the 1970s, its commissioner has warned, as new evidence emerged of the widespread bungling of sexual and domestic abuse claims against officers.

The review of past allegations was triggered by the David Carrick scandal, where the force missed repeated clues that the Metropolitan police firearms officer was a threat to women, while he attacked at least 12 victims over a 20-year period, committing 85 serious crimes.

Checks on 10,000 of the Met’s 50,000 officers and staff against police databases showed 38 cases of possible misconduct and 55 cases of a potential association with a criminal, all of which will be investigated further.

Gross misconduct investigations, which can lead to sackings have risen 62% to 431, with such hearings taking less time to be held.

A total of 144 officers were suspended from duty, double that from September 2022, with 701 on restricted duties.

There has been a 70% increase in those dismissed – or leaving before they could be sacked – in the last six months.

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Mark Rowley aims to reform the Met on the scale of Robert Mark in the 1970s

The London police commissioner faces a battle to clean up a force where the same cultures tackled by his predecessor ‘are alive and well’

The Britain of today shares some similarities with the country of the 1970s: then the country was debating its relationship with Europe, flares were in and frequent strikes disrupted everyday life. And then, as now, standards in policing in the capital were so dire that a new broom had to be brought in to clean up the Metropolitan police.

Sir Robert Mark, the legendary reforming commissioner of the Met from 1972, said this about the force he battled to reform: “I had served in provincial forces for 30 years, and though I had known wrongdoing, I had never experienced institutionalised wrongdoing, blindness, arrogance and prejudice on anything like the scale accepted as routine in the Met.”

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Police ‘take up to 18 months’ to make arrests in online child sexual abuse cases

Poor investigative practices and unacceptable delays leave children vulnerable, official report finds

Police can take up to 18 months to make an arrest after becoming aware that a child is at risk of online sexual abuse, an official report has concluded.

His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) found that forces’ investigative practices are “often poor [and] unacceptable delays are commonplace”, leaving children vulnerable and allowing offenders to escape justice.

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Rishi Sunak refuses to back Braverman’s widely criticised claim about racial nature of grooming gangs – live

Prime minister says offenders have been protected by ‘political correctness’ as he announces ‘grooming gangs taskforce’

Starmer says he has not talked to Jeremy Corbyn for two and a half years.

Q: Is he a friend?

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Body of man killed in custody may have been shown to trainees, Yorkshire police admit

Body of Christopher Alder could have been seen by cadets after mixup of remains, says South Yorkshire force

South Yorkshire police have admitted that officers may have been shown the body of Christopher Alder, a former paratrooper who died in police custody, in a mortuary as part of their routine training years after he was supposed to have been buried.

Alder, an ex-Parachute Regiment soldier, choked to death while handcuffed and lying face down on the floor of a Hull police station on 1 April 1998. CCTV footage showed officers laughing, joking and making monkey noises while he lay unconscious in a pool of blood. It was more than 10 minutes before police went to his aid.

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Louise Casey: Met police chief accepting term ‘institutional’ would mean so much

Mark Rowley says he accepts the report but will not use the term because it has become politicised

Louise Casey has told the Metropolitan police commissioner it would “mean so much” if he accepted the term “institutional” regarding the failings in the force, as the war of words over the use of the word showed no signs of slowing down.

It came as the mother of two sisters whose dead bodies were photographed and shared on a WhatsApp group by two officers said she was “gobsmacked” he refused to use the term.

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Keir Starmer promises to halve violence against women as part of crime ‘mission’

Labour’s plan would include dedicated rape courts and domestic violence experts taking 999 calls, says party leader

Keir Starmer has vowed to halve violence against women and girls within a decade, with measures including dedicated “rape courts” and domestic violence experts taking 999 calls.

Setting out one of Labour’s core missions on crime, Starmer said it was the “unfinished business in my life’s work to deliver justice” and said Tory attacks on him for being a human rights lawyer “only shows how far they’ve fallen, and how little they understand working people”.

Restore public confidence in the police and criminal justice system to its highest level.

Halve knife crime incidents, including with an enhanced police presence outside schools.

Drastically improve statistics for the proportion of crimes solved by the police.

Drive down violence against women and improve conviction rates.

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Khan criticises Rowley’s refusal to describe Met as institutionally biased

Metropolitan police commissioner says ‘institutional’ label is confusing and political as fallout from Casey report continues

Sadiq Khan has publicly clashed with the commissioner of the Metropolitan police, saying he disagrees with Sir Mark Rowley’s refusal to describe his force as institutionally misogynistic, racist and homophobic.

The mayor of London, one of two people who appointed Rowley, spoke as the fallout from Louise Casey’s bombshell report into Scotland Yard continued.

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Boris Johnson ‘very much looking forward’ to appearing before MPs investigating whether he misled parliament over Partygate – as it happened

Former prime minister says he believes evidence shows he did not recklessly mislead parliament over Partygate

Boris Johnson claims there is no document showing that he was given “any warning or advice” than any No 10 event may have broken Covid rules. He says:

It is clear from that investigation that there is no evidence at all that supports an allegation that I intentionally or recklessly misled the house. The only exception is the assertions of the discredited Dominic Cummings, which are not supported by any documentation.

There is not a single document that indicates that I received any warning or advice that any event broke or may have broken the rules or guidance. In fact, the evidence before the committee demonstrates that those working at No 10 at the time shared my honest belief that the rules and guidance were being followed.

I accept that the House of Commons was misled by my statements that the rules and guidance had been followed completely at No 10. But when the statements were made, they were made in good faith and on the basis of what I honestly knew and believed at the time.

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Tuesday briefing: Breaking down the damning new 300-page report into the Met Police’s failures

In today’s newsletter: The Casey report gives an in-depth look at the issues at the core of the capital’s police force

Good morning.

The crisis faced by the Metropolitan police has only become more acute after publication of a damning report by Lady Louise Casey, released today, that finds the force has institutional problems with racism, misogyny and homophobia. The review was commissioned after the abduction, rape and murder of Sarah Everard in 2021 by serving firearms officer Wayne Couzens. The 300-page report leaves no stone unturned, addressing the culture of bullying and harassment, and senior leadership’s inability to adequately address the mounting number of scandals. It has also said that the Met should accept the finding of an inquiry from 2021 that deemed the force “institutionally corrupt”.

Climate crisis | The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has delivered its “final warning” on the climate emergency. The report took eight years, hundreds of scientists, runs thousands of pages long and has one clear message: act now or face irrevocable damage to the planet. There is still hope though, as the authors of the report stress that it is still possible to avoid the worst ravages of climate breakdown.

Brexit | According to party leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, the DUP will be voting against the government in this week’s first parliamentary vote on the new Windsor framework for Northern Ireland. Donaldson said: “There remain key areas of concern which require further clarification, reworking and change as well as seeing further legal text.”

Strikes | Members of the RMT have voted to accept a 9% pay increase over two years, in a referendum that closed yesterday. The turnout of the vote was nearly 90%, with 74% voting for the offer, thereby ending their dispute with Network Rail.

Labour | Keir Starmer has been criticised for pledging to put in place a “zero-tolerance approach to antisemitism and racism” without having transparent systems in place to tackle them. Martin Forde KC, the senior lawyer who carried out an inquiry into the party’s culture, said “you can’t implement zero tolerance unless you’re policing things fairly rigorously”.

Banking | As the banking crisis continued to spread, shares in the regional First Republic bank based in San Francisco crashed more than 46% yesterday after reports that it may need to raise even more funds despite a $30bn bailout last week.

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Met has ‘nowhere to hide’ after damning Casey report, say campaigners

Sadiq Khan promises to hold police force to account after report highlights institutional misogyny, racism and homophobia

Women’s rights campaigners have warned the damning Casey report into culture at the Met has left the force with “nowhere to hide”.

Dame Louise Casey’s 300-page report found institutional misogyny, racism and homophobia persists within Britain’s biggest police force.

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Police officer guilty of using excessive force against Dalian Atkinson keeps job

Mary Ellen Bettley-Smith of West Mercia police found guilty of gross misconduct and given final written warning

The police officer who repeatedly beat Dalian Atkinson as he lay dying has been found guilty of gross misconduct but has been allowed to keep her job.

The family of Atkinson, a former Aston Villa footballer, condemned the news that PC Mary Ellen Bettley-Smith of West Mercia police could return to the streets as an officer instead of being sacked.

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UK mounted police chase down man holding mobile phone while driving

Officers on horseback deployed to reduce use of phones by motorist; driver faces £200 fine and six points on licence

Two mounted police officers have chased down a man spotted holding his mobile phone while driving.

Officers on horses have been deployed across the UK in order to reduce the number of people using a phone while at the wheel. Avon and Somerset police are involved in the enforcement operation led by the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) over the next three weeks.

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Met police on ‘last chance’ as Casey report to condemn failure to change

Exclusive: findings of official review due out on Tuesday described as ‘horrible’ and ‘atrocious’ for force

The Metropolitan police service is riddled with deep-seated racism, sexism and homophobia and has failed to change despite numerous official reviews urging it to do so, an official report will say.

The report from Louise Casey, which is due to be published on Tuesday, will excoriate Britain’s biggest police force, the Guardian has been told. Senior government and policing figures are aware of its contents, with one describing it as “horrible” and another as “atrocious”. One source with knowledge of the findings said the report would make clear that the Met was in the “last-chance saloon”.

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Family of Florida man who died while being violently restrained sues jail staff

Suit alleges that Broward county sheriff’s office used excessive force as Kevin Desir suffered mental health emergency in 2021

The family of a Florida man who died after being violently restrained by jailers is filing a civil rights suit against the officers who were involved in the incident and the jail’s healthcare provider.

According to a draft of the lawsuit shared exclusively with the Guardian, the family of 43-year-old Kevin Desir alleges that Broward county sheriff officials used excessive force against Desir while he was suffering from a severe mental health episode, violating his 14th amendment rights.

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More than 1,500 UK police officers accused of violence against women in six months

‘Staggering’ figures from the National Police Chiefs’ Council show that less than 1% of those accused have been sacked

More than 1,500 police officers have been accused of violent offences against women and girls over a period of six months, and less than 1% have been sacked, according to new figures.

Overall, 1,483 unique allegations were reported against 1,539 police officers – or 0.7% of the workforce. There were 1,177 cases of alleged police-perpetrated violence, including sexual harassment and assault, reported between October 2021 and April 2022, according to data from the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC).

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