London Mayor Sadiq Khan has expressed his anger to Metropolitan Police boss Dame Cressida Dick and warned he has put her “on notice” following the exposure of sexist, racist and homophobic messages exchanged by officers, a spokesperson for his office has said.
On Tuesday, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) published the messages, which were sent between officers from a now disbanded team based in Westminster, primarily at Charing Cross Police station.
“The Mayor and the Commissioner had a very frank discussion which lasted for well over 90 minutes,” Mr Khan’s spokesperson said.
“The Mayor made clear to the Commissioner how angry he is with a return to the bad days of the Met of his childhood in the 1970s and 80s, and that neither he nor Londoners will put up with this.
“He has put the Commissioner on notice. He said the Met needs to urgently show it has an effective plan for restoring the trust and confidence of Londoners in the police and to drive out the culture of racism, homophobia, bullying and misogyny which clearly still exists within its ranks.”
Racist, sexist and homophobic messages exchanged by police officers were published by a watchdog that found the highly offensive language was dismissed as “banter”.
Lauren Hurley
Details of messages from WhatsApp groups and a Facebook chat group including multiple references to rape, violence against women, racist and homophobic abuse were unveiled by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) on Tuesday.
The watchdog took the unusual step of publishing the messages in full – despite the fact that much of the content is too offensive to print in mainstream news coverage – as it detailed the “disgraceful” behaviour of Metropolitan Police officers based in a now disbanded Westminster team between 2016 and 2018.
Messages exchanged in two WhatsApp groups and one Facebook group included multiple references to sexual violence including, “I would happily rape you” and “if I was single I would happily chloroform you”.
In other discussions one officer bragged that he had hit his girlfriend, and told a colleague: “It makes them love you more”, while another boasted that he had repeatedly slept with a prostitute who he met through work.
One officer was referred to as “mcrapey raperson” in WhatsApp messages because of rumours that he had brought a woman to a police station to have sex with her.
Homophobic language was also used and a number of racist messages including references to African children, Somali people and Auschwitz that are too offensive to print.
There were also references to Muslim fanatics and offensive terms for disabled people, and messages about police officers attending a festival dressed as known sex offenders and a molested child.
The messages were uncovered as part of nine linked investigations into officers based in Westminster, mostly at Charing Cross police station, that began in March 2018 after allegations that an officer had sex with a drunk person at a police station that were later found unproven.