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Sky News
4 days ago
- Politics
- Sky News
Met Police chief says force 'stretched' and justice system 'frustrating' - as he admits London's 'shameful' racism challenge
It is "shameful" that black boys growing up in London are "far more likely" to die than white boys, Metropolitan Police chief Sir Mark Rowley has told Sky News. In a wide-ranging interview with Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips, the commissioner said that relations with minority communities are "difficult for us", while also speaking about the state of the justice system and the size of the police force. Sir Mark, who came out of retirement to become head of the UK's largest police force in 2022, said: "We can't pretend otherwise that we've got a history between policing and black communities where policing has got a lot wrong. "And we get a lot more right today, but we do still make mistakes. That's not in doubt. I'm being as relentless in that as it can be." He said the "vast majority" of the force are "good people". However, he added: "But that legacy, combined with the tragedy that some of this crime falls most heavily in black communities, that creates a real problem because the legacy creates concern." Sir Mark, who also leads the UK's counter-terrorism policing, said black boys growing up in London "are far more likely to be dead by the time they're 18" than white boys. "That's, I think, shameful for the city," he admitted. "The challenge for us is, as we reach in to tackle those issues, that confrontation that comes from that reaching in, whether it's stop and search on the streets or the sort of operations you seek. "The danger is that's landing in an environment with less trust. "And that makes it even harder. But the people who win out of that [are] all of the criminals." The commissioner added: "I'm so determined to find a way to get past this because if policing in black communities can find a way to confront these issues, together we can give black boys growing up in London equal life chances to white boys, which is not what we're seeing at the moment. "And it's not simply about policing, is it?" Sir Mark said: "I think black boys are several times more likely to be excluded from school, for example, than white boys. "And there are multiple issues layered on top of each other that feed into disproportionality." 'We're stretched, but there's hope and determination' Sir Mark said the Met is a "stretched service" but people who call 999 can expect an officer to attend. "If you are in the middle of a crisis and something awful is happening and you dial 999, officers will get there really quickly," Sir Mark said. "I don't pretend we're not a stretched service. "We are smaller than I think we ought to be, but I don't want to give a sort of message of a lack of hope or a lack of determination." "I've seen the mayor and the home secretary fighting hard for police resourcing," he added. "It's not what I'd want it to be, but it's better than it might be without their efforts." 0:39 'Close to broken' justice system facing 'awful' delays Sir Mark said the criminal justice system was "close to broken" and can be "frustrating" for police officers. "The thing that is frustrating is that the system - and no system can be perfect - but when the system hasn't managed to turn that person's life around and get them on the straight and narrow, and it just becomes a revolving door," he said. "When that happens, of course that's frustrating for officers. "So the more successful prisons and probation can be in terms of getting people onto a law-abiding life from the path they're on, the better. "But that is a real challenge. I mean, we're talking just after Sir Brian Leveson put his report out about the close-to-broken criminal justice system. "And it's absolutely vital that those repairs and reforms that he's talking about happen really quickly, because the system is now so stressed." Giving an example, the police commissioner went on: "We've got Snaresbrook [Crown Court] in London - it's now got more than 100 cases listed for 2029." Sir Mark asked Trevor Phillips to imagine he had been the victim of a crime, saying: "We've caught the person, we've charged him, 'great news, Mr Phillips, we've got him charged, they're going to court'. "And then a few weeks later, I see the trial's listed for 2029. That doesn't feel great, does it?" Asked about the fact that suspects could still be on the streets for years before going to trial, Sir Mark conceded it's "pretty awful". He added: "If it's someone on bail, who might have stolen your phone or whatever, and they're going in for a criminal court trial, that could be four years away. And that's pretty unacceptable, isn't it?" 7:21 Challenge to reform the Met The Met chief's comments come two years after an official report found the force is institutionally racist, misogynistic and homophobic. Baroness Casey was commissioned in 2021 to look into the Met Police after serving police officer Wayne Couzens abducted, raped and murdered Sarah Everard. She pinned the primary blame for the Met's culture on its past leadership and found stop and search and the use of force against black people was excessive. At the time, Sir Mark, who had been commissioner for six months when the report was published, said he would not use the labels of institutionally racist, institutionally misogynistic and institutionally homophobic, which Baroness Casey insisted the Met deserved. However, London Mayor Sadiq Khan, who helped hire Sir Mark - and could fire him - made it clear the commissioner agreed with Baroness Casey's verdict. A few months after the report, Sir Mark launched a two-year £366m plan to overhaul the Met, including increased emphasis on neighbourhood policing to rebuild public trust and plans to recruit 500 more community support officers and an extra 565 people to work with teams investigating domestic violence, sexual offences and child sexual abuse and exploitation.
Telegraph
28-05-2025
- Health
- Telegraph
Sadiq Khan's plan to decriminalise cannabis is dangerously divisive
Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, says he believes the police should stop arresting people for possessing cannabis. Frankly, I'm shocked. Mainly because I didn't know the police were arresting people for it in the first place. It certainly doesn't smell like it. These days, practically all our towns and cities – including the one run by Mr Khan – stink of weed. Which suggests that a very large number of people now feel able to smoke it with absolutely no fear of getting arrested. Whether this is because the police can no longer be bothered to enforce the law, or they're too busy carrying out dawn raids on the bookshelves of Spectator readers, I don't know. But either way, it hardly seems worth clamouring for decriminalisation, when in effect we've already got it. Even so, Mr Khan has backed calls to change the law. And these calls seem to have something to do with race. According to an independent commission, set up by the Mayor, the policing of cannabis use is shamefully unjust to people who aren't white. In a new report, the commission says: 'The law with respect to cannabis possession is experienced disproportionately by those from ethnic minority (excluding white minority) groups, particularly London's black communities. While more likely to be stopped and searched by police on suspicion of cannabis possession than white people, black Londoners are no more likely to be found carrying the drug.' If so, that plainly is unfair. But it's not an argument for decriminalisation. It's an argument for stopping and searching greater numbers of white people. Which, of course, would be completely fine. Go right ahead. Even if today's over-anxious police chiefs would probably misunderstand such an edict, and tell their officers: 'When investigating crime, we must never treat any community with more suspicion than any other. Which is why, this afternoon, I'm sending you all to a WI jumble sale, to search little old ladies for machetes.' None the less, the report maintains that the way forward is to decriminalise possession. At the same time, though, it says producing and dealing should remain illegal. Which is odd, because it implies that the blame for the trade lies solely with the people doing the latter. But if it weren't for all the people wishing to possess the drug, no one would produce or deal it. Ultimately, therefore, it's their fault. Anyway, if possession does get decriminalised, you can bet there'll soon be calls to loosen the law further. Which would be even more unwise. Just look at what's happened to New York, which in 2021 decided not only that people should be allowed to smoke cannabis, but that shops should be granted licences to sell it. Has this put criminals out of business, while raising lots of lovely extra cash through tax? Funnily enough, no. Illegal vendors simply undercut the legal ones. Kathy Hochul, who is New York's governor (and a Democrat, rather than some stereotypically stuffy Republican), has called it 'a disaster'. Even The New Yorker, proud tribune of liberal America, ran a dismayed article asking: 'What happened?' All the same, the Mayor of London insists that his commission's report makes a 'compelling' case. I don't think it does. And I especially think we could have done without the irrelevant wittering about ethnicity. We've got quite enough 'community tensions' in this country as it is. So we certainly don't want people thinking: 'What? They want to allow possession of a dangerous drug, just because they think it will improve 'police relations' with 'black communities'? That sounds awfully like special treatment. Mind you, I suppose they need to free up the cells, to make more space for middle-aged women who post problematic opinions on the internet.' This, in short, is why Mr Khan's plan for cannabis isn't just naive. It's dangerously divisive. I note, incidentally, that the Mayor has just proposed a 20 per cent rise in London's congestion charge. But don't worry. I've prepared a report arguing that the charge is unjust, because it's experienced disproportionately by the motoring community, while the cycling and walking communities get off scot-free. So the whole thing should be scrapped.
