Detection rates for rape and other crimes against women and girls are “plummeting” in London amid the crisis of confidence in the Met, the capital’s deputy mayor has warned MPs.
Sophie Linden, who oversees policing on behalf of Sadiq Khan, told the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee that there was a “real issue” with the way that “women and girls are being treated” by the Met — highlighted by both its flawed culture and the service it was providing for victims.
“There’s an issue around detections, those offences against women and girls — rape, sexual offences, domestic abuse — those detection rates are really plummeting,” Ms Linden said. “So there is a cultural problem and there is also an issue of the service that is being delivered to women victims that means that confidence has fallen.”
Ms Linden’s warning came as she was pressed by Labour MP Diane Abbott and Conservative MP Tim Loughton about what she had done to tackle failings within the Met in the seven years since her appointment as deputy mayor of policing.
She was also told by committee chair, Dame Diane Johnson, that it was “unacceptable” that the Met was still employing PC Terry Malka, who escaped with a final written warning after a conviction in 2018 for outraging decency by masturbating on a train the previous year.
Ms Linden said she agreed that the situation was unacceptable and that Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley had also made clear that the same decision would not have been taken if he had been in post at the time.
She added that the case was one of more than 1,000 previously completed disciplinary hearings being re-investigated to see if further action could be taken, and that the Met and City Hall both wanted the Home Office to give forces the power to sack convicted officers without having to conduct misconduct hearings.
Ms Linden’s appearance on Wednesday was part of a series of hearings being conducted by MPs on improving the performance of police in the wake of scandals including the conviction Wayne Couzens for the kidnap, rape and murder of Sarah Everard and the jailing of his colleague and serial rapist David Carrick.
