"Hundreds of colleagues should have been fired," says the London police chief

After a series of scandals involving racism and misogyny at the London police force, an independent investigative report comes to a devastating verdict: officers who break the law rarely face the consequences in the British capital.

Independent investigator Louise Casey presented her interim report on Monday, listing numerous shortcomings in Britain's largest police force. "Cases are taking too long to resolve, allegations are dismissed rather than dealt with, the burden on those who raise concerns is too great," the investigator wrote in a letter to London Police Commissioner Mark Rowley.

There is also a clear gap in the system: white officials are treated less strictly than black or Asian officials. The investigator plans to present her full report in the coming year.

"There must be hundreds of people who shouldn't be here, who should be thrown out," said Mark Rowley in a first reaction to the BBC. Rowley took over after the forced resignation of former London Police Commissioner Cressida Dick. He wants to introduce a culture change and win back the trust of the population.

In a letter to the investigator, the new police chief also described the omissions uncovered by Casey as unacceptable. "I feel sorry for those we have let down: both the public and our honest and dedicated officials," he wrote. The public deserve better police.

The report was commissioned after the scandal-plagued Metropolitan Police had hit their all-time low: In March last year, a police officer kidnapped, raped and murdered 33-year-old Londoner Sarah Everard.

The act shocked the whole country, and WELT also reported in detail. The police's subsequent handling of vigils and protests was also heavily criticized.

Other police officers had taken selfies with the dead victims of violent crime and shared them in Whatsapp chats. There were also allegations of bullying and sexual harassment at a station in Charing Cross and how the police dealt with the case of two missing sisters in 2020. Relatives had found the black women, the police had not searched for them.

In February, the said Cressida Dick resigned as London's police chief after Mayor Sadiq Khan said she was not doing enough to promote police reform.