Revealed: The Met is the least trusted police force in England by women and ... trends now
The Metropolitan Police is facing a 'monumental' struggle to rebuild its trust with women after several scandals that saw servicing officers convicted of the rape, kidnap and even murder of females in the capital.
A study published today suggests the force is the least trusted by women in any region of England, following high-profile court cases involving Met cops and a brutal report that labelled the force institutionally racist, misogynistic and homophobic.
A report by Baroness Casey published a year ago warned there was a 'rot' at the heart of the Met that had been allowed to go unchecked, and said the force had lost public trust and become 'unanchored' from its founding principles.
The paper's authors say female trust was decimated by the rape and kidnap of Sarah Everard by Wayne Couzens in March 2021 - which came after fellow officers had joked about his inappropriate behaviour and nicknamed him 'The Rapist'.
Met bosses did little to improve their standing with women in the immediate aftermath of her killing with what the study labelled an 'overreaction' at a vigil held in her memory, when several arrests were made for alleged breaches of Covid rules.
A woman walks past New Scotland Yard, the Metropolitan Police headquarters in London. A new study found trust among women in the capital's police is lower than elsewhere in England
Sarah Everard, who was kidnapped, raped and murdered by Wayne Couzens in March 2021. Couzens was a serving Met officer nicknamed 'the rapist' by colleagues
A woman being restrained by police at a vigil for Sarah Everard in March 2021
Baroness Louise Casey, who authored a damning report into the Metropolitan Police. The authors of a new study say her warnings about an erosion of trust may have actually been understated
Met Police officer Wayne Couzens, who kidnapped, raped and murdered Sarah Everard. Investigations found there were chances to stop Couzens before he abused his police powers to kill the marketing executive
The Met's actions at the Clapham Common vigil led to damages being paid out to activists Patsy Stevenson (above) and Dania al-Obeid
The force was criticised for using what was seen as excessive force against people who turned out to remember Ms Everard
The Met's actions at a vigil on Clapham Common, which saw women restrained, pinned against trees and pushed to the floor by officers as they paid tribute to Ms Everard, were widely criticised.
It led to the force paying damages to two women who were arrested at the vigil, Patsy Stevenson and Dania al-Obeid, while a third woman, Jennifer Edmunds, was paid £10,000 last month for false imprisonment.
As the Met's reputation nosedived, commissioner Cressida Dick resigned after the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said he was not confident she was capable of taking up the challenge of restoring the Met's reputation amongst Londoners.
But exactly how little trust Londoners place in the capital's crime-fighters has not been measured until now - and the scores make for grim reading for those tasked with improving the reputation of the UK's largest police service.
The study, conducted by academics from several UK and international universities, surveyed 8,000 people across England and asked them to rate their trust of the police on a scale of one to seven.
A score of one would indicate they did not trust the police 'at all' and a score of seven 'completely'. Researchers found women were more trusting of the police than men in other regions of the country. But this did not apply in London.
On average, trust in the police in other English regions was scored as 4.1 out of seven by women, and 3.91 out of seven by men. But in London this dropped to 3.72 and 3.82 out of seven respectively.
The scores were even lower for ethnic minorities, who rated their trust in the police at an average of 3.61 in other parts of England and 3.59 within the capital.
Areas with predominantly Conservative voting populations, meanwhile, tended to have 'significantly higher' levels of trust in their local constabulary.
Steven Pickering, honorary professor at Brunel University London, believes the problem the Met has in rebuilding public trust is even greater than was assumed in the Casey report.
'Baroness Louise Casey ran an investigation into the Met, and she issued a scathing report, saying drastic action was needed,' he said.
'But our research suggests that public trust in the Met is even lower than Baroness Casey found. This is especially pronounced
