The head of the UK’s Metropolitan Police apologised on Wednesday for “appalling, criminal” behaviour by officers seen displaying racism, misogyny, and Islamophobia in a BBC undercover report.

“The behaviour depicted in this programme is reprehensible and completely unacceptable,” Commissioner Mark Rowley said in a statement ahead of the airing of the BBC’s “Panorama” documentary.

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Nine officers and a staff member had already been suspended, while two others were removed from frontline duty after the BBC shared allegations from the report, said Rowley, adding he was “truly sorry” for what he called a “toxic legacy”.

BBC reporter Rory Bibb spent seven months, until January 2025, working in a civilian role as a detention officer in the custody suite of Charing Cross police station in central London.

During his time, “officers called for immigrants to be shot, revelled in the use of force and were dismissive of rape claims,” the BBC said in a statement.

Several male police officers were secretly filmed making shocking statements, including that a detainee who had overstayed his visa should have “a bullet through his head,” and that migrants from Algeria and Somalia were “scum”.

One officer boasted about his sex life in graphic terms.

London Police Scandals

The Met police have come under fire in recent years for a string of scandals, including the 2021 kidnap, rape, and murder of marketing executive Sarah Everard by a serving officer who was later jailed for the rest of his life.

It had vowed to clean up its ranks and restore public confidence after a review found the force was institutionally racist, homophobic, and sexist.
Rowley acknowledged Wednesday that there were “systemic, cultural, leadership and regulatory failings”.

But he said the Met was conducting the “biggest corruption clear-out in British policing history”.

The custody team at the Charing Cross station has been disbanded, and Rowley revealed that “almost 1,500 officers and staff who failed to meet our standards” had been sacked from among the Met’s 40,000-strong force in the past three years.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan said he had met with Rowley to discuss the BBC’s revelations and “a series of urgent changes have been put in place.”

UK Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said the “disturbing scenes in this footage are sickening” and welcomed the decision by Britain’s police watchdog to probe the allegations in the report.

AFP

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