Ill Met

The Metropolitan Police is put into special measures

June 30, 2022

Metropolitan motorcycle Police on on 10th April 2022 in London, United Kingdom. The Metropolitan Police Service, formerly and still commonly known as the Metropolitan Police, is the territorial police force responsible for the prevention of crime and law enforcement in Greater London. (photo by Mike Kemp/In Pictures via Getty Images)
The reputation of London’s Metropolitan Police Service was further damaged this week. The Met has been buffeted by scandal after scandal, most shockingly the murder in 2021 of Sarah Everard by a serving police officer. It has lacked a permanent commissioner since Dame Cressida Dick was forced to step down in April. On June 28th it emerged that Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services, a policing watchdog, had put Britain’s largest police force into special measures. That means the Met is now subject to heightened scrutiny and must produce a remedial plan to tackle a litany of failings. Underlying this downward spiral is a steady loss of confidence in the force, among Londoners as a whole and among victims of crime (see charts). Whoever is chosen, the new commissioner has a very big job ahead of them.