Yesterday we published a piece titled Under-fire Met Police chief Mark Rowley hits back at claims Scotland Yard is ‘institutionally racist’ in wake of damning report – as ‘broken’ and ‘corrupt’ force is warned it could be broken up if it tries to ‘cherry pick’ reforms. Comments have been received which we felt insightful enough to warrant a blog piece of their own. Alan Johnson’s first comment:

I recommend reading the report. It’s a big document and I’ve only skimmed a few sections but what I’ve looked at is quite troubling in terms of the methodology and how thin the evidence is for the damning conclusions. It’s important to read the report itself as a corrective to what’s reported of its conclusions in the media.

Most of the conclusions regarding the institutionally racist, misogynistic, homophobic nature of the Met was drawn from an online survey shared through online forums. Less than 7,000 responses were received, representing than a seventh of the workforce. The problem with this is that those responding are a self-selecting group likely to be those who are most disgruntled or who have the strongest feelings. Nothing is mentioned about any process to ensure that individuals don’t make multiple entries – or even that the responses come from people who actually work for the Met.

When for example the report states that ‘One in three (31%) (Met officers and staff) disagree that everyone is treated fairly regardless of gender’ This is actually respondents’ responses to the survey. Put another way, fewer than 4% of the Met staff disagreed that everyone is treated fairly.

The survey results are almost completely useless but almost certainly massively overstate all problems due to selection bias and lack of validation of identity.

When the Met attempts to defend itself by saying that criticisms of staff on the report are only relevant to a small minority and are lambasted in the media for doing so, the nature of these statistics should be borne in mind. I was amazed how relatively low some of the negative percentages were, given the way the survey was performed. Only 25% disagreed that everyone was treated fairly regardless of their race or ethnicity for example. This could mean that in the staff as a whole such a view is held by a very small minority of approximately 3%.

On discrimination in general, the report seems to rely almost entirely on anecdotes, the survey accepting uncritically what had been reported. An interview of randomly-selected personnel would have given numbers which were much more reliable. The problem with the essentially anecdotal reports is that they don’t appear to have been checked for corroboration and in an organisation with nearly 50,000 employees there are going to be examples of unacceptable behaviour. Casey’s report makes no attempt to validate, quantify or compare the level of reported issues against other organizations. As a result, the anecdotes are just that and not useful evidence at all.

It’s often not clear that even if the anecdotes are accepted as accurate, they would support the conclusions drawn from it. As an example:

“When your face doesn’t fit, a line manager will use every possible tactic to get rid of you. So your work life becomes a constant battle to keep your job (frequently to higher standards than able-bodied staff) whilst discrimination and processes are used against you.”

Is this just someone who’s disgruntled because their manager’s assessment of performance is different from their own? Is it a manager who favours cronies, or a manager who genuinely discriminates against the disabled? Another example:

“Women are made to feel guilty for working compressed hours…it makes you ashamed and called out.”

Or perhaps those who don’t work such hours resent people who do, whether male or female? Is such resentment justified?

The section on misogyny is similar but something that specifically caught my eye was that there was input to the report that defended dark humour as a means of coping with stress but the report treated this as evidence of a denial culture and a refusal to accept the reality of misogyny.

There is however research literature on the use of humour as a means of coping with stress and trauma. In general it identifies humour and particularly dark humour as beneficial in coping with stress and/or as a marker of high stress that should be treated as an indicator that staff may need support. That the report ignores this evidence and instead paints such behaviour by (male) police officers as being unacceptable and evidence of a misogynistic culture is perhaps evidence that the author isn’t interested in the welfare of those officers, or in the reality of the situation, but in reinforcing a pre-determined conclusion.

In an organization as large as the Met, that has been operating with reduced resources, which deals with intensely stressful situations with intrinsic conflict, it would be surprising if there were not many areas that could be improved and many shortcomings. Whereas the report seems to contain plenty of evidence of individual incidents which are clearly very poor, the conclusion of the report of an institutionally racist, homophobic, misogynistic organisation seems unsupported by the evidence within it. In fact I don’t think the gathering of the evidence required to reach such a conclusion was even attempted. Condemning an entire organisation in this way seems likely to be counter-productive in seeking to address any genuine issues identified, but rather guaranteed to create a defensive us vs them mindset and a distrust of the motives of the report’s authors. It’s depressing and the reporting of it even more so.

Alan Johnson’s second comment:

I was concerned that the methods used Louise Casey’s report on the Met resulted in a distorted and inaccurate picture. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this was exactly the same criticism as the last major report she was responsible for – here. Extracts from that report:

“There are troubling aspects of the report…the process by which it was prepared, in particular the lack of rigor [sic] and transparency in the methods used to gather and analyse data…This gap [in methodology] …should concern us as it goes to the heart of issues of accuracy.”

Exactly the criticisms I would make about her report into the Met and perhaps this was why she was selected, based on her track record of delivering a damning report without any danger of a real investigation.

Comments from Mike P:

Of course the media link to the notorious recent convictions. And there does seem to be something wrong with the Diplomatic protection squad. However on the assumption the click bait media have selected the worse examples, in fact what you get are a load of hazing and black humour. And I really can’t believe having your evidence fridge breakdown is “misogyny” rather poor maintenance. Perhaps because it’s now a “service” the indiscipline is unsurprising.

I just happened upon a programme on one of the minor channels which will follow a “black, gay, queer man” who earns a living being “Beyonce”. He was marching down a street as Beyonce, wearing so little that had he been obviously a man, he’d have been arrested. It turns out our “hero” was a policeman recruited, no doubt, as he himself observed, as he ticks a lot of diversity boxes all in one. I mused on the recruitment process that contrived to recruit so obviously unsuitable a candidate. Not just the “drag” but the attitudes. I happen to know a number of past recruits including a lesbian. They and the cohorts I knew were very similar in being serious if not to say a little dour. I was left musing if the push to diversity had had a big part in the indiscipline the capital’s police force appears to be plagued with.

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