Bacon in Muslim officer’s shoes and rape kits in fridges: Five shocking takeaways about the Met from the Casey Review
London’s Met Police force has been found to be “institutionally racist, misogynistic and homophobic” by a blistering landmark review.
Crossbench peer Baroness Louise Casey was commissioned to look into culture and standards at the Met after the murder of Sarah Everard by serving cop Wayne Couzens.
Her review – which has been branded “damning” by mayor Sadiq Khan has revealed the depths the force has sunk to and sparked calls for a public inquiry.
Here are five things we learned from reading Casey’s report:
1. Bacon was left in a Muslim officer’s shoes
Casey found discrimination – including racism – was “baked into” the fabric of the Met.
She said issues were “tolerated, not dealt with”. One Muslim officer told Casey he was “horrified” when he “found bacon left in my boots inside my locked locker”.
He said he didn’t want to be branded as “playing the race card” and did not report it for fear of reprisals.
Other incidents included a baptised Sikh officer having his beard cut as another officer thought it was funny.
2. Widespread bullying dismissed as ‘banter’
Bullying in the Met Police is widespread, Casey found, with more than a fifth of officers reporting having experienced it – with incidents often dismissed as “pranks or banter”.
Casey wrote: “ We heard of bags of urine being thrown at cars, male officers flicking each other’s genitals, dildos being put in coffee mugs, lockers being emptied or covered in evidence tape, and an animal put in an officer’s locker.”
While a female officer reported women being “forced to eat whole cheesecakes until they would vomit” as part of initiation rituals.
A male officer was reportedly sexually assaulted in the showers as part of an initiation, which other officers would “openly talk and joke about”, while other officers were urinated on.
3. Rape kits stored in broken fridges
Casey’s review describes the detection rate of rape and serious sexual offences in London as “so low you may as well say it’s legal”.
Teams face resourcing issues, she found, including freezers which preserve evidence for sexual violence cases including swabs, blood, urine and underwear, which did not close.
Three officers were required to close the freezers; one to push the door closed, one to hold it shut, and one to secure the lock.
And all the fridges used for rape kits were in “bad shape, packed and ruining evidence”.
4. Openly gay officer ‘scared’ of police
An openly gay Met officer admitted he was “scared” of the police and would “vary the route I walk” to avoid them when off-duty.
Homophobic bullying is sustained within the Met, Casey found.
The officer, known as E, had been subject to false rumours, targeted on social media and the victim of homophobic slurs and malicious internal reports.
He said: “This will sound quite laughable. I’m scared of the police. I don’t trust my own organisation. I vary the route I walk to avoid walking past police officers when I’m not at work.”
5. Borough officers ‘asleep at their desks’
Local policing in London faced heavy cuts during the austerity years, with borough units now described as the “worst place to be”.
Officer numbers are relatively unchanged but staff levels – including PCSOs and specials – fell from 28,254 to 21,482. This is equivalent to cutting four borough’s worth of people.
A lack of supervision means officers are sometimes “an hour and half late to work” with nothing done and able to get away with sleeping on the job.
One officer said: “My team was known as ‘the laziest’… I went into the office on night duty and every officer was asleep at their desks…the radio was still going constantly.”
You can read Baroness Casey’s .