Mark Rowley starts on Monday and will launch a 100-day plan to turn around Britain’s biggest power after it was mired in repeated crises and was humiliatingly deemed so poor it was put into special measures by the official inspectorate. She replaces Cressida Dick, who was ousted in February as the Met faces demands from the government and the mayor of London to overhaul and abandon its patronage. Rowley aims to increase the proportion of crimes the Met solves and boost the number of officers in local neighborhoods to build relationships. He seeks to rebuild public trust, which has crumbled over the past five years under Dick. The major drive against biased and corrupt officers will increase the number of investigators in the Met’s own “duty unit”, known as the directorate of professional standards (DPS), by more than 30%. Scandals that have rocked the Met and public trust in it include a serving officer abducting, raping and murdering Sarah Everard in March 2021. There have been scandals over vulgar hate messages exchanged between officers on social media platforms, some bragging about violence against women, some overtly racist and in one case exchanging images taken by police at the scene of two murdered sisters. Rowley’s plans will see more than 130 new investigators recruited to the DPS, with more undercover work planned and its technical capabilities enhanced. It will also have faster and more comprehensive access to information systems. As well as catching more offences, senior officers under the new Met regime hope the extra investigators will dramatically cut the time it takes to hold disciplinary hearings against officers suspected of wrongdoing. The plans include tighter monitoring of work phones and computers for signs of tampering. Rowley has decided not to expand, for now, to random checks on personal devices. The extra officers investigating the wrongdoing risk making damaging headlines from a range of cases, but the reckoning among the Met’s new leadership is that they want to show a new resolve to crack down on the toxic cultures that are destroying the force. One insider said: “It’s going to get worse before it gets better.” Rowley replaces Cressida Dick, whose five-year tenure as commissioner ended with her resignation after alienating both the Home Office and, notably, London Mayor Sadiq Khan. The London mayor lost faith that he could implement reforms quickly or quite radically, but a report last week found that he had effectively rejected Dick constructively. In fact, the promise of swift reforms was a crucial promise to be made and acted upon by whoever hoped to succeed Dick as Met commissioner. The advert for the Met commissioner, published by both the Conservative-run Home Office and the Labor mayor of London, called for “the eradication of unacceptable behavior at all levels, including misogyny, racism and homophobia ». Archie Bland and Nimo Omer take you to the top stories and what they mean, free every weekday morning Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. The ad, reflecting the view of the Home Office and City Hall, called for reform of the “institutional culture” and the restoration of “public trust” and “legitimacy” in Britain’s greatest power. The findings of the inquiries into the Met and its culture, one ordered by the force itself and the other by the government, will be delayed for legal reasons. Outgoing Home Secretary Priti Patel, who after consulting Khan appointed Rowley, sent an open letter this weekend calling for radical changes from the new commissioner, who is paid £293,000 a year. Patel called for “wide-ranging reform” and demanded Rowley “promote better leadership and higher standards at every level across the force”. Patel added: “Londoners need to be confident that improvements are being made immediately and will have an impact. I expect MPS, under your leadership, to demonstrate clearly that it will learn from the appalling mistakes of the past and move away from the culture of organizational defensiveness that has impeded progress and damaged public trust.” Rowley, 57, a former counter-terrorism chief, left the Met in 2018 and is returning to the private sector after a spell. He vowed to be “ruthless in removing those who corrupt our integrity”.
