The head of the London Metropolitan Police (MET) apologized this Wednesday, October 1 for the “disgusting and criminal” behavior of agents who have shown racism, misogyny and Islamophobia in a report under the BBC.
“The behavior described in this program is representable and completely unacceptable,” said Commissioner Mark Rowley in a press release published before the “Panorama” magazine of the BBC News.
Nine police officers and a staff member have already been suspended, while two others have been withdrawn from the service on the front line after the BBC made the accusations contained in the report, said Mark Rowley.
I am “sincerely regret” of this “toxic inheritance,” he added.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer demanded a “strong” response from the London Police after these revelations, denouncing the “shocking” behavior.
1,500 layoffs
BBC journalist Rory Bibb spent seven months until January 2025, working as a civil prison agent in the District of Detention of the Charing Cross Police Station, in downtown London.
During this period, “the agents asked to shoot immigrants, rejoiced by the use of strength and accusations of careless violation,” said the BBC in a statement.
Several police officers were filmed in a hidden chamber while making shocking comments, saying in particular that a detainee who had exceeded the duration of the validity of his visa deserved “a bullet in the head” and that the Algiers and Somali migrants were “slag.”
The Metropolitan Police have been in the heart of a series of scandals in recent years, including the kidnapping, violation and murder in 2021 of Sarah Eeverard, Marketing Manager, by a service officer who was later sentenced to life imprisonment.
He had pledged to clean his ranks and restore public confidence after a report revealed that the police were institutionally racist, homophobic and sexist.
Although he acknowledged that there had been “systemic, cultural, managerial and regulatory failures,” Mark Rowley said that MET directed “the greatest operation to fight corruption in the history of the British police.”
The team in charge of police custody of the Charing Cross police station dissolved, and Mark Rowley revealed that “almost 1,500 agents and personnel who did not meet our standards” had been dismissed among the 40,000 MET members in the last three years.
Source: BFM TV
