Unhappy Valley – politicalbetting.com

Happy Valley, Line of Duty, The Bay, Gold, Broadchurch, Inspector Morse, Endeavour, Never Forget, Life on Mars, Ashes to Ashes, Cracker, Vera, Prime Suspect, Guard, Luther, Criminal, Heartbeat, Inspector George Gentle, Among Line, Foyle’s War. The view we have, thanks to many TV police dramas, is that it’s good, if you can tell, that the police (and the occasional policewoman) are doing what’s best for us. If they sometimes stretch or break a rule or two, well it’s all in a good cause. They are good people.

Meanwhile back on Planet Earth, on March 17th a former Met cop was jailed for sharing with his colleagues as “loud” photo of two men having intimate relations with the body of a decapitated woman. Is it surprising to read in the Casey report that, when the Met tried to encourage whistleblowing, others told their colleagues to delete their WhatsApp messages.

The report is long and detailed; the contents are horrible. They – if people have paid attention to all previous reports on the Met in the last few years – are entirely unsurprising. The only surprise is that it needs to be said, again and again and again, in never short intervals. We are not talking about 1 or 2 rotten apples, not a barrel of rotten apples, or a rotten orchard. We are also going to the salted earth area.

It’s best summed up by what Louise Casey said this morning: “It’s an organization long on hubris and fairly short on humility.“it”ended in denial“. He politely says that the current Met Commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, gets it. But him? The reaction is to make an argument about whether they accept the full findings, about what the failure of the force “institutional” or not. For God’s sake Mark! Today is not the day to make such an argument, even if it makes sense (it doesn’t exist). How the hell do you think you met? Tin ears are nothing compared to the inadequate, tone-deaf and empathetic response of the Home Secretary with the claim that it should be destroyed as a useless first draft. Cameron at that moment let it go a little. Can’t they make him write? The only good thing is that they have apologized for their appalling behavior – including the police (at Hillsborough, if anyone thinks of bad police behavior it’s only in the Met).

Perhaps the most shocking aspect of the report is the example: one of the worst is the revelation that the evidence from the rape case was placed in a broken refrigerator, full and so guarded that the door could not be closed, the evidence was contaminated and had to be thrown away. No wonder some police officers are informed that rape is now effectively decriminalized. The other is a police report of masturbating in a shared locker room in front of his teammates. No one bothered to report on the behavior of David Carrick or Wayne Couzen. We have organizations suffering from ethical blindness. Even poor Sir Mark admitted as much when he said he was too busy with his duties as Assistant Met Commissioner a few years ago that he didn’t speak up about the bad behavior he saw. Someone has it. Burke’s quote on why evil can triumph.

The fridge was broken and evidence was thrown away. Police send out questionnaires in high profile investigation (Partygate). The police broke the law when they obtained a search warrant (Operation Midland). This is a force that has lost its sense of professionalism, that doesn’t know how to – or care to – do its job properly. A police force that cannot be bothered to store evidence properly is not fit for purpose. Yes – showing contempt for women. But if they don’t do it in such cases, why would anyone think that they do good investigations in other crimes? The lack of professionalism leads to all other problems: sexism, racism, homophobia, corruption, obstacles (Morgan report), lawlessness and many other failures (Operation Midland & Henriques Report) . No professional police force should tolerate the behavior described because someone who behaves in such a way would not be doing a good job even when dealing with people who cannot be humiliated, humiliated or humiliated. Such prejudice is the result of – and causes – incompetence. Both are fatal to good cops. The danger of the response to this report is that they will focus on prejudice and not on incompetence. No amount of EDI training or flagging is going to change that (see Stephen Port’s murder) if you have officers who never work or are useless. All it does is give it a pleasant but superficial veneer of ethics and it doesn’t change anything.

So if we don’t want shallow veneers, what’s next? We have an example of a police force that needs to change: the Police Service of Northern Ireland. Use it as an example. Starmer is a lawyer deeply involved in these changes. This is one area where experience if used wisely can make a difference.

Some suggestions:

• Get the no-nonsense Police Minister Roy Mason whose only job is this.
• It has a task force of people from NI who know how this should be done and some outsiders from other sectors who have done the culture change. (Mayors can be represented but not necessarily responsible. They did nothing for 7 years waiting for someone else to do their job before jumping on the bandwagon.) No retired time servers or other incompetent cops.
• A strict schedule for action.
• Regular reports to the PM on progress: monthly – for as long as possible.
• Put the Police Federation & Police Academy in that box. If they seek to delay or block the way to the door marked “Exit” or even “Abolition”. Fire all officers who do not want to participate in the program.
• Any necessary legal changes are given priority. Get a competent lawyer to give you legal advice, not a lobby group. (Stop all association with lobby groups; they create a conflict of interest incompatible with the police”without fear of mercy“.)
• Break down the tasks into small children with mini-task forces for each and according to the way they work: recruitment, due diligence, training, promotion, disciplinary process (not withdrawing during investigation, for example), appeal process, complaints and investigations etc.
• Make sure all the changes are appropriate and not appropriate.

Establishing best practices is not difficult. Rolling out and embedding it. So the Met needs relentless external pressure and constant hard work, tough leadership and good internal communication. Do they have people who want to make it better and are willing to do what it takes? That’s what Rowley’s cadre should look for. And fast.

This report must have been a near-death experience for the Met. And another police force. This is an opportunity to change for the better. If not now, when?

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