London Mayor Sadiq Khan said his support for Metropolitan Police Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick is “contingent” on her response the next time he sees her.
Asked if the Commissioner still has his trust and confidence, he said: “That will be contingent upon the response from the Commissioner the next time I see her.”
Mr Khan said he sees the Commissioner “on a regular basis”, adding: “The next time I see her I’ll expect to see a response to the two big questions that I posed.”
London Mayor Sadiq Khan
Victoria Jones
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “So the first part of what I expect to see is – what is the response from the Commissioner as to how she intends to address the culture, address the situation, where too many police officers are behaving in a way that’s unacceptable?
“And by the way, nine of those 14 police officers, you mentioned Charing Cross, are still serving.
“And secondly, what is the plan to win back the trust and confidence in the public in relation to the police service, that police our capital city?”
He said this will be a matter of “days and weeks”.
Khan, who put Dame Cressida Dick “on notice” last week following the exposure of racist and sexist messages sent by Metropolitan Police officers, said anyone “who has views or believes that it’s acceptable to behave in a way that’s racist, sexist, homophobic, in a discriminatory manner, does not belong in the police service”.
A report by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) revealed highly offensive language used on WhatsApp and in Facebook chats by officers from a now-disbanded team based in Westminster, primarily at Charing Cross police station.
Fourteen officers were investigated by the watchdog, of whom two were found to have a case to answer for gross misconduct.
One was sacked and another resigned before he would have been dismissed.
Nine remain serving officers, while another is working as a contractor in a staff role.
Asked if all of those involved in the Charing Cross incident should be sacked, Mr Khan told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I think Londoners can’t understand why nine of these 14 police officers are still serving.
“I’ve asked that question.”
He also told the programme: “And by the way, I only discovered last week that two of them have been promoted.”