Female Met Police Officers were ‘traded like cattle’ and assigned to different units depending on how ‘attractive’ they were deemed, The Casey Review report has found. The report has illuminated a plethora of concerning sub-cultures that expose the calamitous state of the force.
Officer H, a black female, described male colleagues as ‘sex obsessed’ and that they would routinely rate female colleagues and members of the public as part of a game. This would be in the execution of their duty. The report states: “H says during this time she was often described by male officers as ‘job fit’ – a term she understood to mean women at work who they thought were ‘attractive for a police officer’”.
H later moved to a different unit that a particular dress code, and she says she was told her hair looked like it had been in an ‘electricity socket’ 10 minutes after taking a shower due to a physical training session.
She said initiation rituals were common in that unit. “She says women were pressured to compete in food-eating challenges to initiate them into the team, and described women being forced to eat whole cheesecakes until they would vomit.”
“On one occasion she was told of a male officer being sexually assaulted in the showers as part of their own initiation, something she says officers would openly talk and joke about on the unit. Those who refused to participate were ostracised and considered ‘not to be part of the team’.”
At one point in her career, H had a ‘controlling and coercive’ relationship with a senior officer who allegedly made malicious allegations against her after they seperated, and this led to her being arrested and tried for misconduct. She describes being scared of being ostracized and labelled a ‘troublemaker’ if she pursued with complaints.
“You have to try and be invisible as a Black woman…If you complain you get a reputation as being trouble and then supervisors try and pass you on to other teams. It’s a ‘learn your place’ culture. Except your place is never there… At first I thought it was about being a Special [Constable]. Then I realised it was just the Met.”
The Casey Review report has deemed the Met to be institutionally racist, misogynistic, and homophobic, and H’s case is simply one of a multitude.