LABOUR called today for urgent and serious reform of policing to combat a “perfect storm” in the wake of Cressida Dick’s resignation as Metropolitan Police commissioner. 

Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said that an overhaul of police training, misconduct proceedings, officers’ social media use and whistleblowing structures are all needed. 

Amid plummeting confidence in the London’s main police force following the murder of Sarah Everard, Ms Cooper is also calling on Home Secretary Priti Patel to urgently include tackling violence against women and girls as a strategic policing requirement for all forces. 

She warned that the problems in policing are not confined to the Met or Dame Cressida but exist across other forces, demonstrating the need for “a proper serious programme of reform.”

Successive Tory governments have spent more time cutting police services than raising standards, she said, leading to British policing facing a “perfect storm.”

Speaking on BBC1’s Sunday Morning programme, Ms Cooper warned: “Crime is going up, prosecutions are going down, confidence is falling. 

“There’s a legacy of damaging cuts and also these individual toxic cases around the culture. There needs to be a proper serious programme of reform for policing.

“I strongly believe in the British policing model of policing by consent. That’s something we should be proud of, but that means we also have to stand up for it and deliver reforms that achieve it.

“There have been none of those reforms from the Home Secretary.”
 
Dame Cressida’s resignation came after London Mayor Sadiq Khan said that he had lost confidence in her leadership and ability to tackle an alleged culture of misogyny, sexism, homophobia, racism and bullying in the force. 

Last week, the police watchdog found “disgraceful” examples of sexual harassment, misogyny and racism by officers at Charing Cross police station. 

The findings were the final straw for Dame Cressida following a series of scandals at the Met, including cases of sexism and racism among officers. 

Mr Khan has pledged to oppose the appointment of a new Met commissioner unless that person has a “robust plan” to deal with the cultural problems embedded in the force. 

Writing in today’s Observer newspaper, Mr Khan said that Dame Cressida’s successor will have to understand the scale and urgency of the Met’s cultural problems. 

The London mayor is working with Ms Patel to replace the former commissioner. 

Labour’s plans would see misconduct proceedings overhauled to reduce delays to hearings and “stop abuse being dismissed as ‘banter’,” as happened at Charing Cross police station.

It would also see officers’ social media use subjected to regular reviews and an overhaul of whistleblowing structures to ensure that staff can report misconduct without fear.  

Racial justice campaigners, however, expressed doubts about the possibility of changing police culture. 

Delia Mattis of the Black Lives Matter coalition told the Morning Star: “The calls for police reforms are as expected, but the question is, how do you reform an institution that is built on policies of white supremacy and racism runs through its very core?  

“The police force is still as institutionally racist as ever and black people suffer from police brutality just as we always have,” she said, insisting that nothing has been learnt from the landmark Macpherson report of 1999, which found the Met was institutionally racist.

“I'm not holding my breath for the next commissioner to be a bastion of anti-racism.

“I do not believe for one minute that the police institution can be reformed, because the evidence is clear that it can’t.”