Police should have phones randomly checked to tackle misogyny, says former Met boss
11 July 2022, 19:18 | Updated: 11 July 2022, 19:20
Met must do random checks on officers' phones
Police officers should have their phones randomly searched in order to tackle ingrained misogyny within forces, the former commissioner of the Metropolitan Police has said.
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Lord Ian Blair, who was commissioner between 2005 and 2008, said that whilst misogyny has long been a problem in the Met the emergence of "secret" social networks such as WhatsApp mean people are not longer afraid of making sexist comments.
"We are in an era of social media," he said.
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"When I was a Met constable it was a pretty sexist, racist organisation, but the idea that anybody would say 'what women need is a good slap' is just inconceivable."
He went on: "These social networks are entirely secret and I think what's going to have to happen is that the Met will have to have a deal that people can randomly have their phones examined."
Former Met Commissioner Lord Ian Blair speaks about Cressida Dick
His comments come after a series of damning revelations about conduct within the Met - much of it relating to activity on social media sites.
In November two officers admitting sharing photos the bodies of two murdered sisters on WhatsApp - an encrypted messaging app - after they were assigned to protect the crime scenes.
They were jailed a month later.
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An investigation by the Independent Office for Police Conduct in February found a whole host of offensive messages exchanged between police officers.
The officers joked about rape and sent racist and homophobic messages which they described as "banter".
The messages were described as "sicking" by Priti Patel and Sadiq Khan said he was "utterly disgusted".
