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‘TWO-TIER’ Met Policing should be put back in “special measures” and Sadiq Khan stripped of control, a new report has found.
A think tank investigation concluded the public may now live in fear that “the forces of law and order have lost control of the streets and yielded control to a mob”.
The Policy Exchange report, titled A Long Way To Go, found Scotland Yard favoured the rights of protest groups and are failing to make necessary arrests.
It also called for the Met Police to be put back into “special measures” to tackle the rising number of mobile phone thefts and shoplifting.
The assessment concluded public faith in the force plummeted during Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley‘s three years in office.
The Policy Exchange has also urged for Sir Sadiq Khan to be stripped of responsibility.
It slammed the London Mayor for making decisions that have had “a catastrophic impact on the fight against crime”.
The report accused the force of doing more to “prioritise the rights of protestors over the rights of the wider public”.
It read: “With the apparently differential treatment of different groups based on either the cause of the protest or the identity of those protesting, it has become increasingly clear that ‘two-tier policing’ is not merely a perception but a reality.
“This inconsistent application of police powers and the law is perhaps one of the most troubling aspects of modern policing – a factor which has seriously damaged policing’s reputation for fairness in the eyes of many.”
A United Kingdom Independence Party demonstration was highlighted in the report.
The protest, on October 25, was held in Tower Hamlets and the Met applied for “very stringent conditions” because the community had the largest percentage of Muslim residents in the UK.
The report said: “Such a decision may well have been justified on the grounds of preventing serious public disorder.
“However, the willingness of the police to impose such stringent restrictions to safeguard the local Muslim population, while apparently being unwilling to go similarly far on behalf of the Jewish community or the broader public at previous events, indicates a readiness among senior officers to apply different standards to different groups.
“If the rationale for the force’s decision is because they feared public disorder from those resisting the protest it is tantamount to an admission that ‘mob-rule’ has taken priority over the rule of law – an unacceptable state of affairs.
“Too often police choose to prioritise the rights and freedoms of protestors over the rights of ordinary people going about their daily lives.”
The Policy Exchange further blasted Sir Sadiq for reducing stop and search, revealing it had a “catastrophic” impact on reducing crime stats.
The report concluded until changes have been made, the public will continue to feel “there is a culture of impunity to crime in London”.
Knife crime has surged by 58 per cent in London in three years, a report revealed earlier this year.
Meanwhile, there were 81,279 mobile phone thefts in the capital last year.
And shoplifting has tripled in four years to 93,705 offences across the past 12 months.
Westminster, in central London, has the highest current annual crime rate in the UK at 423.2 incidents reported per 1,000 people.
But the Met only solves 1 in 20 robberies and burglaries, 1 in 13 shoplifting cases and 1 in 179 street muggings, the report found.
Met Commander Hayley Sewart said: “Our New Met for London plan is delivering significant improvements on the issues that matter most to our communities and crime is falling across London.”
“Since April, offences like theft, robbery and vehicle crime are down nearly 15 per cent compared to the same period last year and officers are arresting around 1,000 more criminals every month.
“At the same time, knife-enabled crime has reduced by 16 per cent and knife-enabled robbery by more than 23 per cent in the past year, and homicide in London is also at a 10-year low.
“Despite a £260million funding gap and amid a shrinking Met, we are protecting neighbourhood policing, response policing and public protection so we can be there where and when the public needs us.”
A spokesperson for the Mayor of London, said: “Nothing is more important to the Mayor than keeping London safe and he continues to lead the way by being tough on crime with a record £1.16billion support for the police this year alone and tough on the complex causes of crime through the country’s first Violence Reduction Unit which is leading an approach rooted in prevention and intervention.”
