According to an official report from England's police watchdog, London police officers routinely made jokes about rape and exchanged racist messages, detailing a pattern of misogyny and bullying in the force, the latest blow to an embattled service that has faced intense scrutiny in recent months.

The findings reflected a troubling culture within the London Metropolitan Police Service, according to the report released Tuesday by the Independent Office for Police Conduct, the police watchdog, which detailed the incidents were not isolated or the work of a few "bad apples".

The report comes amid growing calls for increased scrutiny of the force after a 33-year-old London woman, Sarah Everard, was kidnapped, raped, and murdered by a Metropolitan Police Service officer in March 2021.

“The behavior we uncovered was disgraceful and fell well below the standards expected of the officers involved,” Sal Naseem, the police watchdog's Regional Director, said in a statement, adding that the "issues are not isolated or historic."

The Metropolitan Police Service said in a statement that the actions of the police officers in central London that the report detailed do "not represent the values" of the force. The report uncovered evidence of bullying and discrimination, emphasizing repeated occurrences of racism and xenophobia, with messages between officers that mocked the Black Lives Matter movement and non-Christian religions and insulted people with disabilities.

The series of investigations began with a complaint regarding an officer having sexual relations with an intoxicated person at a police station but quickly expanded to cover a wide range of concerns.

Banter remarks

According to the article, the probe concluded in September following an examination of hundreds of messages between cops, many of which were “highly sexualized, discriminatory, or referred to violence" and were frequently labeled as "banter" by officers.

The audit discovered evidence within WhatsApp groups containing racist remarks, as well as degrading comments about women. In one exchange, two officers talked about domestic violence, with one officer writing about women, “Knock a bird about and she will love you. Human nature.”

In another exchange, a male officer told a female officer, “I would happily rape you.”

According to the report, the casual nature of the officer's exchanges indicates a "culture" where officers are comfortable enough to make such comments, instead of being an exception to the norm. 

The study included 15 suggestions to address the force's underlying culture flaws, including urging it to "publicly commit to being an anti-racist organization with a zero-tolerance policy toward sexism, misogyny, bullying, and harassment.”

Some officers have already been subjected to misconduct procedures following the report, with 14 given notice that they were being investigated, and two officers fired for egregious misconduct and placed on a list that barred them from future employment with the police. Two others quit, and numerous others were disciplined.

Sue Fish, the former head of Nottinghamshire Police in northern England said the study “graphically portrays the toxic racist and sexist culture which is endemic in policing.”

She believes that police departments should make it clear that such behavior will not be tolerated and that screening and recruiting should be reformed for not only the Metropolitan Police Service but all police stations in the country.

Some legislators, notably Diane Abbott, an opposition Labor member who represents an east London region, have called on Cressida Dick, the Metropolitan Police Service's chief, to quit.

Priti Patel, Britain's Home Secretary, who is in charge of national policing, criticized the officers' actions as "sickening" in a statement and urged the police department and London's mayor to adopt the suggestions "as soon as practically possible."

Yvette Cooper, a Labor Party MP in charge of policing, called the acts a "total disgrace", calling for standards to be constantly maintained and abuse eradicated.

Selfies at the scene

This is not the first controversy surrounding police forces in the UK. In December, a police officer was found guilty of offenses during his time in the Merseyside Police Department for 6 years.

At the crime scene of a murdered teenager, PC Ryan Connolly shared "appalling" racist and abusive images over Whatsapp. The officer was found guilty of taking and distributing photos on his personal Samsung phone.

The Merseyside Police confirmed that the officer photographed people in mental centers and hospitals as well.