The Met's misconduct crisis

Dear Londoners — welcome to another grey-skyed Monday in the metropolis. We don’t mind though — we’re still feeling buoyant from our paid launch last Tuesday. The response has been incredible, with 150 of you now signed up as subscribers. It really does mean the world to us that so many of you have put your faith in the kind of long-form, in-depth journalism we provide. We’re so grateful, and we can’t wait to continue on this journey with you.

If you haven’t yet subscribed, you can join us as a paying member from just under £8 a month (a little less than what you’d spend on a lunch at Pret). Take advantage of our time-limited early-bird discount using the buttons below. 

Catch up

This weekend, we asked the question that was tearing our team apart: where, exactly, is the area known as ‘Central London’? Is it Zone 1? The space within the Circle Line? The Central Activities Zone? Each advancing wildly different definitions, the Londoner’s writers — Andrew, Hannah and Miles — duelled it out to define the boundaries of London’s most contentious territory.

Our commenters had their own views: “Entertaining article, but I think the answer is quite simple. Central London is anywhere that lies within the old Circle Line,” wrote Mike Pinker, while Joe Gibbons argued that it’s a six-mile radius from the Centre Point building. Let us know where you think the borders of Central should be in the comments section for the piece. 

Earlier in the week, we published two fascinating (and radically different) articles for paid subscribers. The first was Miles’ dispatch on Reform UK’s south east conference, featuring colourful interviews with politicians and members convinced that Britain needed to be made “great again”. The second was veteran journalist David James Smith’s haunting read on Adam, a murdered child found floating in the Thames over 20 years ago whose killer has never been found. 

Exclusive: Inside the crisis at the Met

Top line: The Londoner has discovered a potential spike in the number of officers at the Metropolitan Police facing hearings for serious misconduct and criminality.

Context: Since the start of December to date, The Londoner found that the Met had published outcomes for the misconduct hearings of 30 police officers. Given the number of public holidays over the Christmas period, this puts the number of misconduct cases close to one officer per working day. While investigating misconduct at the Met for the Observer two years ago, Londoner staffer Andrew Kersley recorded almost the same number of cases over a four month period as have come out in the last two.

The cases: The details of the cases make for graphic reading. They include officers accused of rape; of harassing an ex-partner; of beating their child with a coathanger and of being part of a group chat where they made Islamophobic, sexist and otherwise offensive comments, including joking about burning down the home of a woman who complained about one of the officers’ conduct. One of the cases even led to the dismissal of Charles Ehikioya, the head of the Met's Black Police Association, who was in a separate offensive group chat. Another case surrounded two officers who drunkenly engaged in oral sex in a service elevator at Bethnal Green Police Station before being walked in on by their colleagues. 

The broader perspective: It’s another sign of a wider crisis at the Met. Financially, Met Commissioner Mark Rowley has warned of “eye-watering” cuts to services to come after the force burned through most of its financial reserves trying to address a near half-a-billion-pound shortfall. That doesn’t exactly bode well for a force which has the lowest staffing levels in a decade; a shortage of officers with tasers and guns; a recruitment crisis and is, by its own admission to The London Assembly, “not fit to serve Londoners effectively,” as a third of its officers have under four years service. 

Why this matters: Advocates for the police may argue the uptick in tribunals suggests that the force is finally getting to grips with its reportedly toxic culture, something it has been accused of failing to do since the Casey Report (which first concluded the force was guilty of institutional racism, misogyny and homophobia back in 2023). That, or it is at least improving access to the publication of misconduct hearings, which have been removed from or not published on public databases in the past. 

However, others may suggest that the figures only outline just how rampant many of these problems are. Given the majority of alleged misconduct cases don’t tend to lead to full independent investigations or tribunals (not helped by a delay-ridden internal investigation system and multimillion pound defence budgets from staff association the Police Federation), it remains to be seen if this represents the full extent of Met misconduct or just a small segment.

Your news briefing

🪧 The gentrification of historically deprived areas in South East London continues apace: only last year, plans were approved to demolish 373 flats in the Aylesbury Estate, hot on the heels of the controversial demolition of the Heygate Estate. Local residents continue to fight back, however — and the latest action is a spate of mysterious flyers calling for people to 'derail' the planned Bakerloo extension, which they contend will lead to ‘the biggest ever wave of property speculation’. “I grew up around here, and there's everybody I grew up with being forced to move. It's heartbreaking,” one local told MyLondon, “but let's look at the bigger picture here: the trains aren't responsible for the prices going up. That started ages ago.”

🧻 There are now fewer than 22 public toilets per London borough, new research by Age UK has found. The “worrying decline” comes after years of rampant closures of public toilets by local councils trying to address worsening financial shortfalls. The issue has caused particular issues for older Londoners and those with medical conditions, with many having to pre-plan toilet access into journeys or avoid certain areas altogether. There’s one small bright spot, though: TfL has now announced £15m of investment in new toilet facilities at stations across its network.

❄️ Londoners were reminded of the grim realities of homelessness after a man died sleeping rough in Hampstead on Friday. According to the Camden New Journal, the man’s body was found in a bin shed on Saturday morning, after a night where temperatures had fallen to -5 degrees. The Severe Emergency Weather Protocol (SWEP), a humanitarian policy aimed at offering emergency accommodation to the homeless, was in place for the majority of last week. However, there are a number of reasons why homeless people may refuse this accommodation, including the use of hard drugs inside facilities and the long distances they often have to travel to the hostel. 

🚔  The Met has been accused by campaign groups such as Youth Demand and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) of heavy-handed policing after 77 arrests were made at a pro-Palestine protest on Saturday, after a number of protestors allegedly penetrated a police line in central London. Present at the rally were former Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, as well as the former shadow chancellor, John McDonnell. Both have agreed to be interviewed under caution. According to reports, the march was changed to a static rally to avoid passing a synagogue and Broadcasting House.

From dawn till dusk 

We all know London can be unbearably huge. So every week we’ll take you through an ideal day across the city using our little black book of the best London venues. We hope it’ll be equal parts glitz to spit and Tube-dust.

Breakfast: If you’re looking for a takeaway breakfast, try Doorstep Bakery in Brockley. It’s a place where the staff genuinely want to chat with you, know who’s who and, what’s more, can make a really good sandwich. The staff are kind enough to accommodate specific preferences, like if you want half a packet of cheese and onion crisps crumbled into your tuna melt.  

Lunch: Stuck for inspiration on your solo-lunch order? Go Po Cha in Waterloo has an answer — their lunchtime deal serves up an array of plates, including a main course and a broth, for the reasonable price of a tenner. It’s usually quiet in there too, which means you can eat in blissful, meditative silence. 

Drinks: As football fans can attest, finding a really good pub to watch Premier League fixtures can often be tricky. There’s a vague criteria at play: you want company, but not overcrowding; cheap drinks and accessible toilets are also helpful. To our mind, The Kings Arms on Kennington Lane is perfect. If you’re sat outside, the pub has constructed little booths where you can watch with friends — in winter these come equipped with heaters and blankets. Crucially, it still retains the soul of a pub, despite having all the assets of a sports bar.

Dinner: Stonebridge Park is a strange place. Cleaved in half by a grim stretch of the A407, the estate that takes its name was widely known as one of the most violent in London, claimed by two rival gangs who traded killings for years. That said, you can eat some really tasty Pakistani food around Stonebridge if you know where to look. The ‘maicha’ at Taste of Peshawar is easily enough for two people and consists of a succulent lamb shank entombed in pilau and currants.

Later: Spanners, a tiny venue in Loughborough Junction, might have a low capacity. But it also has some of the best programming in London, hosting everything from experimental sound art sessions to dance music nights. Our pick? The debut London gig of Flemish experimental artist Milan W.

Our favourite reads

A Killer Was Taken Back Into Custody. Was It Because of His Drill Rap Songs? — Isabella Kwai, The New York Times

Look beyond the slightly laboured headline and The New York Times has an excellent summary of the controversy around celebrated drill artist TEN, who, it’s claimed, is actually convicted murderer Jake Fahri. After killing Jimmy Mizen in 2009, Fahri was sentenced to 14 years in prison before being released in 2023 on conditions. He’s now back in custody over claims his violent lyrics violated the terms of his release — and the debate over whether drill music promotes violence, or simply documents it, rages on.

Norman Foster’s Empire of Image Control — Ian Parker, The New Yorker

Randomly point at a landmark building in London, and there’s a good chance it will have been designed by one firm: Foster and Partners. Its founder, Sir Norman Foster, is one of the world’s most famous living architects — in London alone, he’s responsible for the Gherkin, City Hall, Canary Wharf Tube station, the British Museum’s Great Court, the Millennium Bridge and the HSBC building at 8 Canada Square, among others. In this profile, Parker tries to find the human underneath the celebrity. 

To do list

In honour of the late director David Lynch, who died last week as his beloved Los Angeles burned, the Prince Charles Cinema is hosting a 675-minute Lynchian all-nighter. All shown in 35mm, the screenings begin at 9pm and end approximately 12 hours later. It’s going to take a lot of damn fine coffee.  

Poet, translator and author Anne Carson is conducting one of this year’s London Review of Books winter lectures at Senate House on Wednesday. One of the most respected and well-decorated writers of this century and the last, Carson is best known for poetry collections such as Autobiography of Red and Nox, as well as for her translations of the ancient Greek poet, Sappho. Her lecture is titled ‘Beware the man whose handwriting sways like a reed in the wind’. 

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