Do feel the met police do a good job of protecting everyone?

[Imsosorryalan75]

According to the bbc news 67% of people feel secure with the police's performance since 2017. I used to think they would help protect me, esp as a woman but after the recent allegations of: raping collegues, Sarah Everard murder, vigil arrests, nazi worshipper, I'm not so sure. The rates of rape convictions are so low, the raping of 2 female police officer collegues, brushed under the carpet? I find this all very worrying. Why isnt there any investigations into the net about why this is happening? What should be done? I feel more vulnerable now than ever before.

[ArtemisiaGentle]

No. I don't think recruitment standards are high enough and current staff get away with far too much.

[PandoraP]

I think the low pay means they don’t attract the calibre they need. You can say that about a lot of public sector jobs.

[Bluebird2021]

how many MET officers are there?

[HermioneWeasley]

No, I have no confidence in them. As well as the recent high profile cases, a few years ago they sent 6 officers (no exaggeration) to remove to lesbians from an Accenture event, because the host was worried about the questions they might ask if allowed to stay.

They are a biased, misogynist police force.

[ScrumptiousBears]

The problem is you never hear the positives. Only when it goes wrong.

[Bluebird2021]

@HermioneWeasley

No, I have no confidence in them. As well as the recent high profile cases, a few years ago they sent 6 officers (no exaggeration) to remove to lesbians from an Accenture event, because the host was worried about the questions they might ask if allowed to stay.

They are a biased, misogynist police force.

translated to... sent to investigate a breach of the peace...or maybe it had all started kicking off and they went to de-escalate it

they are all biased and misogynist though eh....course,all however many thousand there are of them

[PawPawNoodle]

I live in London (since you specifically asked about the Met) and I feel confident in their ability to keep me safe. I don't think they're all misogynistic, racist and/or corrupt whatsoever, and wouldn't hesitate to appeal to them if I needed to.

I don't think the behaviour of a small number of officers is indicative of the force as a whole any more than I'd hold all GPs responsible for Harold Shipman, or all nurses responsible for Beverley Allitt.

[loopyapp]

BBC News - Met officer investigated over rape allegations
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-56581835

BBC News - Met PC found guilty of neo-Nazi group membership
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-56604470

They don't even protect their own. Or us from themselves.

[pastaperfect]

@Polpotnoodle

"I live in London (since you specifically asked about the Met) and I feel confident in their ability to keep me safe. I don't think they're all misogynistic, racist and/or corrupt whatsoever, and wouldn't hesitate to appeal to them if I needed to.

I don't think the behaviour of a small number of officers is indicative of the force as a whole any more than I'd hold all GPs responsible for Harold Shipman, or all nurses responsible for Beverley Allitt."

Are you old (as in Shipman) young (as in BA) and generally are you someone who has less to fear from the Met? Are you British White perchance?

Also I find your handle deeply offensive

[PawPawNoodle]

@pastaperfect

What does any of that matter? The question asked relates to how we feel, I don't need to quantify my personal feeling of safety. (You also forgot to ask my tax bracket by the way)

OK then, thanks for the feedback.

[NiceGerbil]

No and never have, they've been my force for more than 40 years.

I'm really surprised at that 67%!

I think they're awful.

[Hollywhiskey]

I personally feel protected by them. I'm white, middle class, degree educated... I doubt everyone feels the same though which is the point. They need to make sure everyone feels equally well served and they are doing a poor job of that.
Also I have family and friends in the met which makes it feel more connected to me I guess.

[pastaperfect]

@PolPotNoddle - what has your Tax bracket got to do with this and why do you use an offensive username?

[Totallydefeated]

As somebody who lives in London, I absolutely don’t feel protected by them and my opinion of them took a massive nose dive recently when I needed help and they did Jack shit. None of the individuals I dealt with were in any way impressive. I suspect the pay levels are just too low to attract anybody of any sort of calibre.

[NiceGerbil]

I'm white middle class privately educated and earn well. I mean just in case that's relevant.

I have never trusted them as far as I could throw them.

I have had very mixed experiences with them.
Over the years the shit they've done is as long as your arm. And they always seem to get away with it.
Corruption. Killing people and lying about it. Warboys. Reid. They are pretty good at killing black men. The undercover environment activist stuff. Selling stories to the media. And on and on and on and on...

They work to protect their paymasters and the people their paymasters see as important. Obviously.

That's my opinion and I've held it for a very long time.

[SunIsComing]

With over 33,000 officers, there’s bound to be a few bad ones due to government making it easier to join and lowering standards. The court system is part of the problem - why investigate matters when you know cps won’t take it further. As for killing people on duty.... no comment.

[FindingMeno]

Absolutely not.
There's been a series of revelations.
They seem to be fighting tooth and nail to watch their own backs over the spycops scandal.

[BigGreen]

No. Not after John Worboys. Rape has effectively been decriminalised here.

[CuthbertDibbleandGrubb]

I am surprised at the 67% figure being that high. Agree about the comment about the courts and the judicial system, still trying to recover from the stupidity of the era when Chris Grayling was wrecking it.

As for police numbers in the Met (and PCSOs), they were cut by Boris Johnson during his eight years as London Mayor. If you increase the intake greatly, you will get more bad apples.

My opinion is that the Met's size and area is too big and I would have parts of outer London policed by the neighbouring county forces. Bromley by Kent Police, for example.

[Zampa]

Sean Rigg, Jean Charles de Menezes and Ian Tomlinson are three more reasons not to trust the Met.

I don't believe that all officers are evil, corrupt or incompetent. However, I do think that there are structural and cultural issues within the force that need tackling.

[TinySongstress]

My Bro is a Police Officer (albeit not in the MET).
He's a kind, empathetic, sensible man who is bringing up two young toddlers on his own, battling MS, holding down a FT job in the police and is regularly assaulted, threatened with knives, abused and recently threw himself into a freezing river at midnight to save a suicidal 80 something year old man while the man's distraught wife looked on.

The truth is that Officers are themselves at breaking point. He worked through the pandemic, some of it was office based due to his condition but he was back out on the streets being spat at before I was back sat in an office.

They've been subject to savage cutbacks for years, local regional police stations being shut down, officers let go or relocated. They're being failed themselves.

There are some bad officers, as there are bad people in every profession, and the ones who are left are overwhelmed with work and lack of political and financial support.

My heart bleeds for him at the moment. Him, and the other officers who joined the police because they have a strong moral compass and wanted to help people.
They deserve better and so do we.

[HeronLanyon]

I’m at the criminal bar and spend much of my time cross examining police officers - have done so for a few decades now.
I’ve always thought entry requirement were not set high enough for the job.
Training can’t make up for much of that problem.
Training by those not affiliated required as a lot is from within the culture creating continuation of problems.
The job has become extraordinarily more complex - at all stages of investigation.
Just as I’ve been angered and appalled by frequent examples of wrongful use of powers/failings leading to victims being left high and dry/easily excluded evidence leading to acquittals due to failings of exhibit security or other problems.

As a private individual I’m most worried by inconsistency. I was once flashed at in street. Within 5 mins I was in a police car for a drive around trying to find him. All officers were taking it really seriously and linking it potentially to a rape nearby. They could not have been better. (They did not at that stage know what I did for job and the very fact I e thkight that’s relevant is a problem - no question I’ve had better experience throughout my life as white middle class woman and then lawyer - actually if they know I am defence that can change).
Then you think of all of the victims who have had poor response/investigation/liaison/action.
Really mixed.

[Jenga0808]

@Totallydefeated

As somebody who lives in London, I absolutely don’t feel protected by them and my opinion of them took a massive nose dive recently when I needed help and they did Jack shit. None of the individuals I dealt with were in any way impressive. I suspect the pay levels are just too low to attract anybody of any sort of calibre.

This is so offensive I barely know where to begin. There are plenty of police officers with masters degrees, doing this utterly thankless job because they want to protect the public. The same public who seem hellbent on criticising every single one of them without exception.
People have such incredibly short memories of the positive, not to mention dangerous and terrifying work they’ve done in recent years. Grenfell, the riots in London - all of them, running towards terror attacks.... I could go on, but that’s not necessary. The point is that none of us are volunteering to put ourselves in front of the bad guys to protect everyone else. There will always be a few bad apples but the majority are good people and they deserve better than just being lumped in with with incessant generalised ignorant criticism.

[HeronLanyon]

jenga I agree with your sentiment. The police force is stuffed full of extraordinary talented brave dedicated people. Also has real problems - some to do with individuals and many to do with institutional/policy/political stuff. Some outside of the forces control. Some not. It’s complex and messy.

[mustlovegin]

I feel protected by the police, yes