Former counter-terrorism chief takes over as force is embroiled in crises over women, race and homophobia

Sir Mark Rowley is to become the new commissioner of the Metropolitan police, after winning the top job in British law enforcement by promising “urgent reforms” to lead the country’s biggest force out of crisis.

Rowley, 57, a former head of counter-terrorism, left the Met in 2018 and returns after time in the private sector. He was selected over the Met assistant commissioner Nick Ephgrave, the other candidate to reach the final shortlist of two.

Exclusive: watchdog’s decision follows nearly 70,000 unrecorded crimes and errors in stop and search

The policing inspectorate’s unprecedented decision to place the Metropolitan police into special measures followed the uncovering of a litany of new “systemic” failings in fighting crime and serving victims, with tens of thousands of crimes going unrecorded and errors in stop and search.

The decision was taken by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and follows an inspection that found 14 fresh significant failings, coming on top of a flood of scandals “chilling” in their damage to public confidence.

“Performance falling far short of national standards for the handling of emergency and non-emergency calls, including too many instances of failure to assess vulnerability and repeat victimisation, failures to provide crime prevention advice and failures to properly advise victims on how to preserve evidence.”

“A barely adequate standard of crime recording accuracy, with an estimated 69,000 crimes going unrecorded each year, less than half of crime recorded within 24 hours, and almost no crimes recorded when victims report antisocial behaviour against them.”

Failing to tell some victims investigations into their crime were being dropped.

Not seeking or considering victims’ views.

Poor supervision of some investigations and failures in public protection.

IOPC watchdog launches independent inquiry into incident on Chelsea Bridge in west London

A man who shot with a Taser by police in London and had to be rescued from the River Thames has died, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) has said.

Police were called to Chelsea Bridge Road in west London on Saturday morning after receiving reports that a man was armed with a screwdriver and shouting.