The culture of toxic masculinity that the BBC’s Panorama investigation once again exposed makes a mockery of everything the Metropolitan Police force is meant to stand for. Watching the footage, the WhatsApp groups where police officers swap rape jokes, slurs and insults, what I thought was: “Here we go again.”
As the first female Muslim detective superintendent in the Met, I was proud of my 30-year career. This was despite my experiences with a few predominantly white middle-aged men who did everything to remove me from within the detective arena. However, while challenging, my experiences were not the vile rhetoric shown by the BBC. In those days, there was “banter”, which I’m not proud to admit I accepted as the norm, brushing off comments like “You’re OK, you’re just brown on the outside, but white on the inside.”
Even five years after leaving the force, I’m often asked, “Why is it always men?” Policing, on the whole, is a male-dominated profession, although the representation of women has improved significantly. The “job” attracts those who want to make a difference. Sadly, some know the power of the warrant card and take the opportunity to abuse their position while hiding in plain sight.
I’ve worked as a custody sergeant, the job at the heart of this BBC investigation. You didn’t do it permanently, as you do now. It can now be a job for life. That change has unquestionably allowed these reprehensible behaviours to fester because sergeants and their inspectors act with impunity. They groomed these young officers by setting their professional standard so low.
This is symptomatic of what is going on more widely in the UK and America. You’ll see Tommy Robinson’s influence reflected in the language used by some of those officers. They don’t actually know when somebody comes in what religion they are, but they’ve assumed they’re “Islamic”.
I’m not going to say Reform voters are racist, because people from all backgrounds are in Reform. Some of the rhetoric that you hear is about immigrants, and it’s almost like these police officers are buying into it. I’d be quite confident that some of them will have been at those marches. Now that this investigation is underway, there may be authorities to check their phones – many of those officers will probably have anonymous social media accounts.
The Met Police commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, has apologised, called the behaviour “a cancer”, and keeps saying that the Met has created safe spaces for officers to blow the whistle on reprehensible behaviour. But he needs to own it. He needs to actually accept and acknowledge that the Metropolitan Police is institutionally racist and sexist, because it is. Sir Mark must do better and create senior teams that randomly go into stations for anonymous conversations with officers that they can then follow up on covertly. That’s what I call a safe environment, not waiting for the BBC to come to you with the evidence.
I understand why people are scared to speak out, and I don’t blame them. I feel for officers who can’t speak out about other people’s behaviour because the minute you do, they’ll suddenly find the sergeant will speak to the inspector, and between them, they’ll find something to discipline you about. And while you’re being the whistleblower, you’re suddenly finding yourself under investigation. People have the right to be treated with dignity, and that is not always happening. The autistic young man who threw the pillow at them: did it really need eight officers to jump in there? It’s a dark time for policing again.
But police officers are made up of everyday members of the community. They come from all walks of life, and they will come in with their own ideology. Some officers will have those opinions changed when they start in the job, because they encounter communities they’ve been prejudiced against, and realise, actually, they’re pretty decent. Even so, you’re never going to completely eradicate the worst things human beings think.
This isn’t just about racism and sexism. This is about every protected characteristic. At the heart of this story are people having their liberties taken away. Victims of sexual assault, domestic violence, and victims who are not being supported because you’ve got the types of officers shown by the BBC within the organisation. That is where the crux of this problem is. You will never get the trust of Londoners when incidents like this are constantly coming to light.
Shabnam Chaudhri was one of the Met’s most senior female Asian officers before leaving the force in 2020
