The news doesn’t get better for the Metropolitan Police, and the people it is supposed to serve. The force has been placed in ‘special measures’ by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS).
The police watchdog unearthed “systemic failings” in routine policing, such as the inability to record the reason for a quarter of stop-and-search operations and the failure to log, wait for it, 69,000 crimes a year.
Of course, that the Met is underperforming will not come as a surprise to many Londoners. The force has for months lurched from crisis to crisis, from the murder of Sarah Everard by a serving officer to the failures in the investigation into the serial killer Stephen Port, that HMICFRS said were likely to have a “chilling effect” on public confidence.
Moreover, it was only February that the Independent Office of Police Complaints (IOPC) report into Charing Cross Police Station uncovered a culture of misogyny, racism, homophobia and bullying. The IOPC was at pains to point out that these incidents were “not isolated or simply the behaviour of a few bad apples”.
The decision by the police watchdog has also reopened an old flank in the perma City Hall-central government wars, this time between Sadiq Khan and Priti Patel.
As reported in today’s paper, a source close to the Home Secretary accused the mayor of being “asleep at the wheel”. Khan hit back, saying he had been calling for some time for systemic and cultural changes in the force “in the face of opposition from Priti Patel and Boris Johnson”. You may recall that when Khan effectively forced the resignation of then-Met Commissioner Cressida Dick, Patel was highly critical.
Policing the capital, with responsibilities from counter-terrorism to street muggings, is no easy task. But, as we put it in today’s leader column, this has to be rock bottom for the Met. From which, we ought to build anew a police force in which all Londoners can have confidence. I don’t think we should accept anything less.
Elsewhere, the Committee on Climate Change has published its 2022 Progress Report to Parliament. Tl;dr... the right ambition, good progress on power sector generation and electric vehicles but elsewhere (buildings, manufacturing, agriculture) less so. And if you want cheaper energy bills, you need to insulate your home (it works!). Its conclusion: “Now is the time to deliver the promised action.”
In the comment pages, QC Kerim Fuad says barristers like him are striking today to save the justice system tomorrow. While Defence Editor Robert Fox makes the case for why Boris Johnson must fund a reboot of the Army. Though good luck with that.
And finally, Reveller Editor David Ellis is back on the sauce, this time at Le Magritte in Mayfair: ‘Surrealist-inspired American bar is a work of art’. Cocktails are £20. Is that a lot? Maybe I need to get out more.
