Metropolitan Police ‘Failing to Deal with Child Sexual Exploitation’, says Recent Report

There’s an old blues song that laments “if it wasn’t for bad luck, I’d have no luck at all”. Adapting that slightly to fit the Metropolitan Police (‘the Force’) that covers 32 London boroughs, their own blues track might complain “If it wasn’t for bad press, we’d have no press at all!”

Just last year, in the wake of the Sarah Everard abduction and murder by Force officer Wayne Couzens, a critical report found that the organisation was still rife with racism, misogyny homophobia and, regrettably, “corrupt”.

Perhaps we should not then be surprised that a report published earlier this year by the blue light watchdog, HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services, concluded that the Force was failing to deal effectively with child sexual exploitation (‘CSE’), leaving vulnerable young people at risk.  The findings indicated a lack of understanding of the nature and scale of child exploitation. This was recognised as a significant first barrier to addressing the problem.

Specific findings included the regular use of “victim blaming language” by officers and staff. For example, a 14-year-old girl was described as “seeking out sex with older men”, and a 12-year-old girl who had been raped was branded as “sexually active with older men”. Worryingly, there was little or no evidence of managers and supervisors challenging this culture of victim blaming. The report also found there was a poor response to children who went missing. Far too often the response was nothing more than “waiting for them to turn up”. More than half of 244 audited investigations were graded “inadequate”; delays and missed opportunities were rife.

Sadly, in my experience of acting for local authorities in many CSE cases, this is not a scenario unique to the Met. It is an attitude which I have encountered in many regional police forces, although I would accept that there has been some improvement over the last decade.

The Inspectors made a total of 11 recommendations for improvement, including more effective efforts to identify suspected perpetrators, better liaison with other public bodies to try to stop children going missing, and finding them more quickly when they do disappear.

Perhaps the most crucial recommendation, however, is for the provision of better training of officers. Commenting on the report, Inspector of Constabulary Lee Freeman acknowledged the need for officers and staff to be trained and equipped to identify and tackle the risks effectively to protect children. He said:

“The Met has already committed to increasing the number of officers in some teams dealing with child exploitation. For the benefit of London’s children, the force should implement our recommendations in full and without delay”.

Forbes comment

I believe the Force is not the only police force that needs to implement radical improvements that will ensure much more is done to protect children from sexual exploitation.

However, one hopes for the sake of London’s vulnerable children that this report will usher in a sea change in attitude and performance that will result in much better outcomes over the coming years. Perhaps, in due course, the Force might even be seen as an example of best practice in tackling the dreadful scourge of CSE.