Sadiq Khan – 2022 Statement on the Casey Report
The statement made by Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, on 17 October 2022.
When I asked the Met to establish this independent review a year ago following a series of shocking scandals involving serving police officers, I was concerned that a serious cultural problem had developed within the Met which was allowing racist, sexist and homophobic behaviour to be downplayed or left unchallenged. The interim findings of this review not only confirm my concerns, but reveal a situation even worse than feared.
It’s clear the Met’s misconduct system is simply not fit for purpose. I now expect nothing less than every single recommendation of this review to be implemented in full, and quickly. All misconduct allegations must be acted upon, cases must be resolved much faster and the disproportionality in the way allegations are dealt with must be eliminated. The majority of those serving in the Met will be appalled by these latest findings and the decent officers who want to speak out – who have clearly been let down for far too long – must be properly supported.
As Mayor, I’ve ensured the Met is now set on a path of far-reaching systematic and cultural reform, with the appointment of a new Commissioner who acknowledges the scale of the problems within the Met. I want to assure Londoners that I will continue to hold the Met to account as I support Sir Mark in taking urgent action to reform the culture and systems of the Met and to root out all police officers found to be responsible for sexism, racism, misogyny, homophobia, bullying or harassment.
