Met chief cracks down on support for woke causes
Sir Mark Rowley sets out approach as he says: ‘There are very few causes policing should be attached to’
ByMartin Evans, CRIME EDITOR28 August 2023 • 9:08pm
Police officers take the knee at a Black Lives Matter demonstration CREDIT: Ian Davidson / Alamy Live News
Britain’s most senior policeman has said his officers will not be allowed to express support for “woke” causes while on duty because it is essential that they are impartial.
The comments by Sir Mark Rowley,
the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, suggest tha
t he will not tolerate officers taking the knee, flying rainbow flags or adorning their uniforms with badges that support environmental causes.
He described himself as “fairly narrow-minded” on the issue and said
the only acceptable additions to uniforms were remembrance poppies, Help for Heroes wristbands and the police memorial badge.
His comments signal that he will take a much harder line than his predecessor, Dame Cressida Dick, who was criticised for allowing officers
to take the knee while policing Black Lives Matter protests and under whose watch officers danced and skateboarded with Extinction Rebellion activists.
Sir Mark said getting drawn into political causes – even popular ones – could be “fatal” for policing, telling The Telegraph: “Wearing a poppy in the autumn is perfectly proper, but there is not a lot that we should align to because the danger is that once you say, ‘we are going to align ourselves to a cause because 90 per cent of the population support it’, what about the 10 per cent?
“Once you start having environmental and other subjects there are lots of people in the organisation who will personally support those causes and that is OK, but the Metropolitan Police explicitly supporting them is quite tricky. I’m fairly narrow-minded on this. There are very few causes policing should be attached to.”
Sir Mark Rowley said getting drawn into political causes – even popular ones – could be ‘fatal’ for policing CREDIT: Jonathan Brady/PA Wire
Sir Mark’s comments signal that he will be less tolerant than Dame Cressida, under whom Scotland Yard initially said it was at individual officers’ discretion if they wanted to take the knee to support Black Lives Matter, even while they were policing protests. Dame Cressida later
said she would not take the knee and that she had ordered her officers not to do so.
Under her watch, a police vehicle was given a Pride rainbow colour scheme to show support for LGBTQ+ causes at taxpayers’ expense.
In 2019, there was public outrage after Met officers were seen dancing and skateboarding with Extinction Rebellion eco-warriors when they were meant to be policing an illegal protest. The officers’ commander later described the behaviour as “unacceptable”.
Sir Mark said:
“Engaging with communities to understand what worries them is not ‘woke’. Starting to align yourself to causes is not something policing should be doing.
“The challenge in the modern world of activists and protest groups – and so much of it is online – is they do drift in different directions, some groups you can think of do have a very sensible majority membership and then a few people with extreme views and you can’t legislate that from outside it.
“If people don’t believe we operate without fear or favour, that is pretty fatal to us more than pretty much anybody else and that is why I think we have to be tougher on that.”
Sir Mark recently banned his officers from wearing the “thin blue line” badge, which was created by the Care of Police Survivors charity as a mark of remembrance and respect for those who died while working. The move came after it emerged that the symbol had links with white nationalism in the United States.
Sir Mark defended the ban, insisting officers could end up wearing hundreds of badges if he did not take a firm line.
It is understood that Sir Mark has not changed the Met’s uniform policy, which makes exceptions only for the insignia of the National Police Memorial Day Trust, Help for Heroes and the Royal British Legion.
‘Anti-social behaviour reports won’t be ignored’
The Met Police Commissioner has urged the public to report every
incident of anti-social behaviour, no matter how small, insisting they will not be ignored.
Sir Mark said Scotland Yard’s decision to stop
responding to mental health callouts would free up officers to concentrate on the priorities of preventing crime and catching criminals, including dealing with thugs who blight communities.
Following an agreement with health and social care leaders the Met will stop attending incidents where a person is having
a mental health crisis from Oct 31 unless a crime has been reported or there is a risk to life.
It is estimated that Met officers currently spend around 10,000 hours a month dealing with mental health callouts, even though they are not appropriately trained or equipped to handle them.
Sir Mark told The Telegraph: “It’s perverse for us to be doing things we aren’t the right people for – at the same time there is police work we are not doing. They shouldn’t be filling gaps
for other services when they could be doing work in the communities and fighting crime.
“Our ability to meet more expectations than we are currently meeting is partly dependent on how we use our people and having them sidetracked into things that are not core policing work means the public don’t get what they want. Communities raise very practical stuff around anti-social behaviour, knife crime and things they want us to do better.”
He has made it clear he will not tolerate officers taking the knee, flying rainbow flags or adorning their uniforms with badges that support environmental causes while on duty, adding: “Once you start having environmental and other subjects, there are lots of people in the organisation who will personally support those causes – but the Met explicitly supporting them is quite tricky. There are very few causes policing should be attached to.”
Sir Mark has made tackling
anti-social behaviour one of the foundations of his New Met for London plan, believing it is one of the key ways in which he can help restore trust and confidence in the force.
Asked whether the public should report every incident of anti-social behaviour to the police and expect a response, Sir Mark replied “absolutely”, adding: “If there is a pattern of things that are making you feel unsafe – it may not be a particular incident, but you are just worried because you are concerned there is something going on outside the local shops, is it drug using or drug dealing or whatever – speak to your ward officer.”
The Met is boosting
neighbourhood policing teams with more officers and PCSOs on the ground where anti-social behaviour takes place.
Sir Mark said the early signs were positive, with surveys conducted by the Mayor suggesting concern about anti-social behaviour was already going down, adding: “It matters to people feeling safe where they are and the secret to confidence in the police is ‘do I have police officers in my patch who know what the most important issues are and are they doing something sensible about it?’.
“If you believe where you live in London that there are some local cops who know what is going on and are doing some sensible stuff, that has a massive effect on your view of the police. You don’t expect it to be perfect, but you do expect there to be some people who care and are trying to do something that is the cornerstone of policing.”
Sir Mark also stressed the importance of reporting all crimes to the police, even if there is little chance of the offender being caught. He explained: “Report it all. We are not going to solve every crime but the pattern of crime matters. If we have a spate of car crimes in your area, we need to know about it and then we can carry out an operation to crack down on that.
“Likewise, if you report a particular crime we will solve the ones that can be solved quickly. We can give you advice on how to prevent recurrence, we can help you in other ways so all of that matters. People still want local police officers to deal with their problems and they want a sense that the police care and are reliable.”
globalnews.ca
