The new Shadow Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper has been tweeting about Boris’s Crime Week and how it hasn’t quite gone to plan. All very enjoyable no doubt and the large Labour poll leads even more so. There is, however, one crime which came to light this week to which Ms Cooper should pay rather more attention, both because it highlights fundamental problems with essential services and, potentially, provides the basis for sensible Labour policies. The crime – or crimes – are the 4 murders between June 2014 and September 2015 by Stephen Port, a serial killer, who killed 4 young gay men, first drugging them, then raping them, then murdering and abandoning their bodies, 3 of them in the same place in a Barking cemetery. What happened to them is distressing. The serial incompetence displayed by the police (the Metropolitan police, in case you were wondering. I know – I was shocked too), extensively aired at the inquest, which concluded this week, must have been equally distressing for the families, not least because had the first murder been investigated properly, it is very likely that 3 young men would still be alive.
Distressing is perhaps the wrong word to describe the police’s incompetence. Appalling would be better. This was not one or two mistakes: it was a series of repeated basic investigative mistakes – from not following up leads, not checking alibis, ignoring evidence, not sharing relevant information, inadequate interviews by untrained and inexperienced officers, failing to make basic checks, ignoring orders to collect forensic evidence, not reading reports, preparing false reports, making untrue statements. On and on the list goes. You can read a detailed account here. What makes it so much worse is that the mens’ families and friends were raising many of the points and begging the police to follow up, which they failed to do. Little wonder that they – and others – are now wondering whether these failings resulted from homophobia, a failure to take seriously the murders of young gay men. It is certainly a question worth asking – even if the inquest jury was directed not to address this.
Poor old Met: accusations of institutional misogyny, then institutional corruption, now institutional homophobia. Quite the annus horribilis. Other than for the Good Ship Cressida of course, sailing serenely on into her second term, utterly oblivious to or unconcerned by the mess on the decks below. If only she could be attached to the prow of a ship where she would do less harm and might (from a distance anyway) have a certain decorative value.
What is particularly revealing is the Met’s reaction to the inquest’s findings: prepared to accept that it was incompetent but utterly rejecting any suggestion of homophobia. It’s as if the idea of having any sort of prejudice is much worse than being totally useless at your job. Of course prejudice, whether against women, gay people, ethnic minorities or any other group is wrong and can lead to serious failings. But this approach is to look at the issue from the wrong end. The prejudice is both a consequence of – and leads to – incompetence. Any competent police force, any competent investigator should know and have drummed into their very bones the absolute necessity to set aside personal views, to be clear-eyed about the facts in order to investigate properly. Investigation is not just a matter of following procedures: it requires empathy and imagination, determined persistence and attention to detail and a ruthless clear-sighted analysis of the facts. This is not easy. But it is at the heart of any good investigation and any good investigator needs this curious and sometimes chilling combination. Prejudice and preconceived opinions stand in the way of this. That is why prejudice is wrong, quite apart from any other consideration.
But it is not enough to have the right attitudes if the rest is absent. The police – and many other bodies – often give the impression that the former is all that matters. It isn’t. Doing one’s job professionally and competently is the most important thing we should expect from our public services. Too often it is missing or seen as an optional extra or unexpected bonus. Many of the officers involved in these cases were promoted. What on earth for? No wonder that delivery is so often second or third-rate. Professionalism and competence are not valued or rewarded or taken seriously. This does not just affect the police. Look at the Foreign Office – and its shambolic response to the Afghan crisis. Or the Department of Education last year. Or the operation of No 10. Or social services.
The London Mayor has referred the Met’s conduct to HMIC to see why the investigation was so rubbish. Great. We can add this report to the many others collecting dust somewhere in Whitehall. Perhaps they can be housed in the soon-to-be abandoned Mayoral offices, a mausoleum for reports never read or acted upon, like those libraries in National Trust houses, impressively showy but otherwise untouched.
When Labour came to power in 1997 one of its focuses was on investing resources in shabby run-down public services. The next government needs to do something similar – but focusing on professionalism and competence and delivery. Less about what is going in and more about what is coming out. Less on attitudinising and posing and slogans and saying the right things. More on doing the basic day job as well as possible.
Boring competence may not be the most thrilling marketing slogan ever invented. But it is oh so very necessary in so many parts of public life, starting with the most basic and important function of the state – law and order, one the Tories have sought to make their own. Ms Cooper and Sir Keir would do well to apply their minds to what is needed: professionalism, culture change and rooting out the inadequate leadership which has resulted in the present sorry state of affairs. They can start with the police. Then use that template elsewhere.
