"We will be looking at this": Norfolk PCC reacts to report that found major failings at Met Police
Giles Orpen-Smellie says Norfolk Police may have things to learn from the Casey report into the Met
Last updated 22nd Mar 2023
Norfolk's Police and Crime Commissioner says officers in the county may have things to learn from a landmark report into failures at the Metropolitan Police.
Baroness Casey's review into the force, commissioned in the wake of Sarah Everard's murder, found that Britain's biggest police force is institutionally racist, misogynist and homophobic - and there may be more officers like killer Wayne Couzens and serial rapist David Carrick.
It found the Met Police has failed to protect the public from officers who abuse women, organisational changes have put women and children at greater risk and female officers and staff routinely experience sexism.
There are racist officers and staff and a "deep-seated homophobia" exists in the organisation, it also concluded.
Met Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said he accepts the "diagnosis" of prejudice in the force, but would not use the term institutional because he views it as "politicised and ambiguous."
Speaking yesterday, Norfolk PCC Giles Orpen-Smellie told Greatest Hits Radio that both he and Norfolk Chief Constable Paul Sanford would be reading over the findings.
"One of the points Casey makes is that people were not willing to call out inappropriate behaviour because they knew they wouldn't be listened to... and by calling it out they'd just make themselves a target" Mr Orpen-Smellie said.
"We've got to have an atmosphere where the culture is right... and when the culture is breached it is called out.
"We've got to make sure that when officers join the police they understand they've got to live to a higher standard... that's what the public expects.
"We must treat Casey as a watershed moment. The public will not accept anything different".
Although the Casey report concerns the force covering Greater London, Mr Orpen-Smellie thinks there may be lessons to learn for Norfolk Police.
"We will be sitting down and discussing it at length... and discussing how it applies to Norfolk."
"We will also look to make sure that Norfolk doesn't have equivalent issues and by implication doesn't have things to correct.
"I suspect there will be many chanages that flow from it".