THE London Metropolitan Police is institutionally racist and homophobic and unable to police itself, says an independent inspection report released today, increasing pressure on the new head of the Met, as the Metropolitan Police is informally known, to reform Britain’s largest police force.

The review was ordered in 2021 by then-Met chief Cressida Dick, after a serving police officer was jailed for life for her rape and murder Sarah Everardin a case that shocked the country and – along with subsequent cases of crimes against women – drew attention to the force’s wider work culture.

“There is institutionalized racism, sexism and homophobia within the agency, in terms of how police officers and staff are treated, and outside the agency, in terms of how communities are policed,” the report said, adding that the force was “failing as regards women and children’.

The independent review, led by Louise Casey, a member of the upper house of parliament, found “serious” failings across the Met which it says will require “radical reform”.

The findings come more than two decades after a 1999 investigation into the slaying of black teenager Steven Lawrence found institutional racism within the force in the way it responded to the killing.

The review finds that consent policing has broken down in the capital and says the biggest obstacle to improving the situation is the Met’s culture of defensiveness and denial about the scale of its problems.

“Whichever way you look at it, by whatever label or description, is the evidence absolutely clear that as an institution they are biased and biased? Yes, it is,” Casey told reporters before the report was released.

Met chief Mark Rowley, Britain’s most senior police officer, told reporters: “We have let Londoners down (…) and this report captures that starkly … I am deeply sorry.”

“(The exhibition) evokes a whole range of emotions: anger, frustration, embarrassment… But above all, it evokes determination,” he added. He stated that the force’s professional standards department has “intervened” and that with its help “we are firing police officers at a faster rate”.

But again, he added, the work is not done yet.

“I can’t say I’ve already reduced the risk of a bad cop, but every day we’re firing people and making progress,” he said, when asked if there were still officers on the force accused of crimes such as murder, rape and domestic violence. .

The 360-page report said the force needed strong leadership, a women’s protection agency and a new children’s strategy, among other recommendations for reform.

Casey’s interim report last October found that the force was taking an average of 400 days to investigate allegations of misconduct by its officers.

“I think the Everard case is very horrific and should be a moment of change – but change has not come. So now this report has to do that and it has to take responsibility to make the change that’s needed,” said Casey.