The Metropolitan police are braced for an undercover documentary exhibiting officers and employees allegedly being supportive of the far-right activist Tommy Robinson, making anti-Muslim feedback and utilizing extreme drive in opposition to suspects in custody.
The allegations, which centre on Charing Cross police station in central London, are contained in a BBC Panorama documentary airing on Wednesday night.
The allegations have plunged the Met into disaster mode, with commissioner Sir Mark Rowley attempting to include the injury in addition to exhibiting he can lower out poisonous cultures inside Britain’s largest drive.
Programme makers are but to make public full particulars of what undercover filming reveal however the broad allegations have been despatched by them to police chiefs a fortnight in the past.
That has led to the suspension of 9 serving officers and the police watchdog launching a significant investigation, with one officer underneath prison investigation.
The Guardian understands the programme claims to have materials during which an officer makes feedback supportive of Robinson. Robinson is a former chief of the English Defence League and the monitoring group Hope Not Hate assesses him to be the “best-known far-right extremist in Britain”.
Allegations additionally anticipated to be broadcast embody claims of extreme drive in opposition to suspects being held on the police station, together with one teen, in addition to anti-Muslim feedback and anti-female feedback.
An undercover BBC reporter working as a member of civilian employees recorded the fabric that led to the allegations.
The looming revelations have been mentioned on a convention name of police chiefs throughout England and Wales on Tuesday and Rowley has cancelled some scheduled engagements on Thursday to cope with the anticipated fallout.
Charing Cross police station is the supply of a scandal that contributed to the ousting of then commissioner Cressida Dick in 2022.
An Unbiased Workplace for Police Conduct report in 2022 revealed graphic particulars of officers sharing messages about hitting and raping ladies, the deaths of black infants and the Holocaust. On the time the officers have been primarily based primarily at Charing Cross, with the offending behaviour of 19 people happening from 2016 to 2018.
Rowley, who got here to workplace vowing to wash up the Met, desires to indicate the his drive will likely be ruthless in coping with allegations of wrongdoing which occurred on and off responsibility between August 2024 and January this yr.
The IOPC mentioned the most recent allegations about Charing Cross had led to 11 people being underneath investigation for potential gross misconduct.
A kind of is a police constable who’s underneath prison investigation on suspicion of perverting the course of justice.
The watchdog mentioned it hadobtained CCTV from the custody space and was searching for detainees subjected to alleged wrongdoing, and in a single case, an officer alleged to have been abused.
Amanda Rowe, the IOPC’s director, mentioned: “Because of our enchantment throughout the Met, we’ve already had numerous police employees who beforehand labored at Charing Cross station contact us with info and we’re following up every report.”
The Met has disbanded the custody workforce at Charing Cross, transferring them elsewhere within the drive and mentioned it had reformed the management masking the police station. It mentioned the allegations, if true, amounted to “criminality and misconduct” and can be “disgraceful”.
The place of Rowley, commissioner since 2022 and with two years of his time period left to serve, is just not considered in peril from the revelations. The important thing political help he depends upon is London mayor Sadiq Khan, who’s in impact the capital’s police and crime commissioner.
The mayor’s aides mentioned Khan believed that Rowley had acted robustly in coping with the allegations.
Neither the Met nor the IOPC has the proof containing the allegations and each hope the BBC will present them with it after the programme is broadcast.
