As he starts the trip to “renew policing by consent,” the new commissioner of the scandal-plagued Metropolitan Police has taken an oath pledging to serve the force with honesty.
On Monday morning, Sir Mark Rowley and his new deputy, Dame Lynne Owens, took the oath of loyalty to the King and vowed to restore public confidence.
In an attestation, the official oath he took, he vowed to carry out his duties “with fairness, honesty, diligence, and impartiality, preserving basic human rights, and grant equal respect to all individuals.”
Today marks the beginning of the new Metropolitan Police commissioner’s employment, which is undoubtedly one of the most difficult periods for Britain’s largest police department.
After Dame Cressida Dick’s dramatic resignation from her position as commissioner earlier this year, Sir Mark Rowley has been named the next commissioner of Scotland Yard.
Sir Mark has been tasked with restoring public faith in the police after a string of scandals and mistakes in recent years.
On his first day as the chief of the Metropolitan Police, he promised to make sure that mourners from all over the globe could respectfully pay their respects to the Queen before and during her burial.
“I join the country in sadness at the passing of Her late Majesty The Queen and extend my sympathies to His Majesty The King and The Royal Family,” Sir Mark said in a statement after his attestation. Our country has been greatly changed by Her Late Majesty’s tireless public service, stoicism through difficult times, and commitment to the people she served.
“I have taken an oath to serve as your new Commissioner with fairness, honesty, thoroughness, and impartiality.
“I have two objectives for the next two weeks.” I’ll lead a Met that makes it possible for residents of London and tourists from all over the globe to respectfully pay their respects to Her Late Majesty, The Queen, in safety.
Second, we will start the reform process to revive policing by consent while we carry on policing local communities.
“Through my leadership, I am committed to bringing greater trust, less crime, and high standards, and to reestablishing faith and confidence in our police force.”
All active police officers in the UK are required to sign the attestation oath, which states that they would “fully and sincerely serve the King in the office of constable, with justice, honesty, diligence, and impartiality, preserving basic human rights, and give equal respect to all persons.”
‘It’s a tremendous task for the Metropolitan Police and for me personally, but we have been preparing for many, many years,’ the new Metropolitan Police Commissioner told Sky News of the preparations for the Queen’s laying in state.
There are some extremely hardworking and committed individuals who have invested a lot of time in this, including myself in past jobs with the Metropolitan Police; five or six years ago, I took part in some of that planning, and most recently, I took part in a review.
But above all, I have complete faith and confidence in the outstanding police officers who will support this event and contribute to its safety.
“As you would anticipate, they have collaborated with colleagues from across Government, the Royal Household, and other groups.
“We will have a secure celebration, but because of the magnitude of security needed and the millions of people who want to pay their respects, we will be putting thousands of cops into this.”
A watchdog earlier this year imposed extraordinary sanctions on the police.
Before Sir Mark’s term started, then-home secretary Priti Patel requested in a harsh letter that he rectify the “appalling errors of the past.”
Among the main concerns that had harmed public trust, she mentioned the murder of Sarah Everard by a serving officer and the appalling failings in the investigations into the killings of victims of serial murderer Stephen Port.
The shocking murder of Sarah Everard by corrupt officer Wayne Couzens as she crossed Clapham Common in March of last year stunned the whole country.
According to testimony given in court, Couzens used the emergency powers of Covid to organise a bogus arrest of Miss Everard before raping and murdering her.
After it was revealed that Scotland Yard may have lost many chances to fire or charge Couzens, Dame Cressida was met with outrage from the people.
Just weeks after joining the service in 2018, Couzens was reported to superiors for allegedly slapping a female coworker in the bottom at the Bromley police station.
Scotland Yard was also charged with “institutional homophobia” for allegedly repeatedly allaying concerns that serial murderer Stephen Port’s killings of four young homosexual males could be connected.
Outrage also followed the publication by a watchdog earlier this year of a slew of troubling racist, sexist, and homophobic comments exchanged by Charing Cross police station personnel between 2016 and 2018.
The brutal, poisonous “boys club” mentality among the officers at Charing Cross police station was made public in a shocking report by the IOPC inspector.
It was discovered that in WhatsApp conversations, officers made ugly racial and domestic violence-related boasts in addition to joking about rape.
The watchdog’s study also included disturbing communications between cops that discussed raping women, murdering black children, paedophilia, Muslims, Auschwitz, and crippled people.
When Dame Cressida said that the London Bridge terror attack victims showed London’s “diversity” in 2017, her choice of words drew criticism.
We obviously think that’s what makes our city so fantastic, the officer said. It is a location where, for the most part, there is great integration, and our variety makes us stronger.
Danyal Hussein fatally stabbed sisters Nicole Smallman and Bibaa Henry in June 2020 as they were out celebrating a birthday at Fryent Country Park in Wembley, north London.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct determined in a report that the Met’s level of service during the weekend they went missing was “below the quality that it should have been.”
Later, Met officers Jamie Lewis and Deniz Jaffer acknowledged capturing and sharing photos of the girls’ murder scene.
‘My thoughts and sincerest condolences are with the families and friends of Nicole and Bibaa for their awful losses,’ Dame Cressida stated at the time.
“The manner in which we reacted to learning that Nicole and Bibaa were missing that weekend fell short of the level we ought to have met and added to the anguish suffered by their family members.”
While we are well aware that Nicola and Bibaa were tragically killed early on Saturday, June 6, 2020, before they were reported missing. If we had reacted more effectively, we may have spared their friends and relatives a great deal of suffering.
During the Euro 2020 tournament last year, ticketless football hooligans scaled Wembley’s security barricades and invaded the stadium before England’s match against Italy.
The Met was charged of not having enough cops on duty to surround the stadium with a “ring of steel” to contain the enraged England fans.
A second watchdog’s assessment on the force’s efforts to combat corruption was released in March, and it revealed shortcomings such as the disappearance of narcotics, cash, and jewellery from evidence warehouses.
Recently, the police have come under fire when cops pulled over Portuguese athlete Ricardo Dos Santos in West London as he was driving.
A previous stop and search of Mr. Dos Santos and his girlfriend, British athlete Bianca Williams, during which they were detained has already resulted in disciplinary action against five Metropolitan Police officers.
A guy who drowned in Kingston after attempting to swim away from police to escape being detained and Chris Kaba, who was tragically shot by an officer in Streatham Hill, are other difficulties confronting Sir Mark. Oladeji Omishore, who died after falling from Chelsea Bridge, was one of them.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) has opened a murder inquiry into the event, and Mr. Kaba’s family has demanded that the officer responsible be “immediately suspended.”
Three deadly shootings in six days in the capital earlier in the summer was uncommon in terms of violent crime.
Since October 31 of the previous year, there had been no gun-related fatalities in the English capital. As of July 19, there had been 12 fatal gunshots out of the 134 homicides that the Metropolitan Police had registered in 2021.
Another important subject is recruitment. As part of a nationwide effort to replace the thousands of positions lost due to austerity, the force must have hired 4,557 new officers by the end of March 2023.
The amount of young and inexperienced recruits who joined the force as a consequence of the recruiting drive, according to inspectors from the watchdog Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of the Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS), in June, had caused issues at the Met to worsen.
All of this occurs at a time when the Met is being closely scrutinised.
Two evaluations are being conducted as a result of the murder of Ms. Everard in addition to the additional monitoring provided by the specific procedures put in place by HMICFRS.
The Angiolini investigation will examine the police career and actions of Ms. Everard’s murderer Wayne Couzens, while the Dame Cressida-commissioned one is being chaired by Baroness Casey and will examine the culture of the force.
In the aftermath of the murder, HMICFRS is also reviewing the vetting practices used by all forces in England and Wales.
A former commissioner issued a dire warning on Friday, urging the next leader of Scotland Yard to dispel wokery within the agency and demonstrate to the public that “every single act of crime” counts.
Lord Stevens, who oversaw the largest police unit in Britain from 2000 to 2005, has urged authorities to stop tolerating violent beggars, habitual shoplifters, and other low-level criminals who ruin lives.
Lord Stevens urges a “urgent and major turnaround of the Met,” telling incoming leader Sir Mark Rowley that there must be a reversal of the “hollowing out” of neighbourhood policing: “The Commissioner will need to prove to the people of London that under his leadership every single act of crime or disorder matters, every individual matters.” Bill Bratton, a former chief of both the New York and Los Angeles police departments, co-wrote the report’s foreword.
Priti Patel, a former home secretary, urged the new Met director to improve the struggling police.
Earlier this month, she wrote to Sir Mark with the following expectations: “I expect the Metropolitan Police under your direction to get the fundamentals right and offer the first-class service required of it.”
“As Commissioner, I also want you to encourage greater leadership and higher standards across the police at every level.”