Ex-Police Watchdog claims Casey Review is ‘the end of the Met Police or the beginning of a new beginning’
21 March 2023, 11:28 | Updated: 21 March 2023, 17:51
Ex-Police watchdog says Met needs to reform after Casey report
Zoe Billingham tells Nick Ferrari the ‘seisimic’ report has ‘shone a light into every corner of the met’.
Reflecting on the Casey Review which has condemned the Met Police for failing women and children, former Chair of the Police Remuneration Review Body Zoe Billingham said they were “unimaginable crimes”.
Speaking to Nick Ferrari following the release of the damning report, Ms Billingham said she was expecting it to be "excoriating," but she said the "breadth of homophobia and racism and the cultural problems" was "surprising".
Barnoess Casey’s year-long review criticises systemic failures, painting a picture of a police force where rape cases were dropped because freezers containing evidence broke.
Ms Billingham believes the Met needs to “see this as either a report that signals the beginning of the end of the met or the beginning of a new beginning”.
Explaining to Nick how the Met can move forward, Ms Billingham said the force needs "new leadership" and "new cultural norms". She said it should be a priority to recruit people who have worked in neighbourhood policing and have worked with vulnerable individuals, rather then those enter the police "because they happen to be able to use a firearms".
Baroness Casey was assigned to look over the force’s culture and standards after Sarah Everard was abducted, raped and murdered by serving police officer Wayne Couzens. The 363-page report deems the force as institutionally racist, homophobic and misogynistic.
Elite Metropolitan Police Officer, David Carrick was convicted of a series of rapes, sexual offences and torture of women.
The report outlines how the leadership teams at the top of the Met Police have refused to accept the systemic failures within the force, failing to eliminate discriminatory behaviour and bullying.
Noting how the release of the report marks a day of “acceptance” within the force, Ms Billingham looked positively into the future of policing, stating: “I'm not fatalist, I do believe the new team will come in and will make this right - it won't happen overnight”.
Speaking to Nick earlier today, Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley told LBC this morning: “Step by step we will reform the policing of London, I hope Londoners will work with us on this mission”.
