Toxic culture of Met fuels distrust in police

Trust thought for today - restoring lost trust in the Met Police

Toxic culture of the Met threatens policing by consent

This good piece from an ex Met police commander Steven Otter reminds us that the UK police prides itself on being unarmed and 'policing by consent' "If the public trusts the police they are more likely to cooperate with them. This consent has real conditions attached; when police behave badly cooperation is withdrawn and suspicion grows until the fragile structure is re-erected. "

As we see, this lack of trust means relationships both ways are more likely to be defensive and confrontational. Us and them. The spiral begins.

How to respond? A clear failure has been that of showing evidence of trustworthiness by visibly enforcing accountability. A culture that brushes misdemeanors under the carpet, as it appears happened at Charing Cross and elsewhere, will never be trusted.

But reducing the distance between police and citizens is another which came out strongly in my trust work. He cites one of the most successful culture change initiatives was the introduction of neighbourhood policing in 2005 with officers accountable to communities. This brought communities and police closer together, reduced us and them mentalities and changed the way police behaved and communities saw them. A more positive spiral began. Then came the cuts, with neighbourhood policing the disproportionately affected.

Given this government's love of catchy headlines and quick fixes, let's hope the next Commissioner learns from the successes like this and understands that building trust is about connection, competence, shared intent, integrity - being trustworthy and showing it. Even with the current home secretary's hard-line approach to other issues, the effectiveness of fostring closer relationships between police and society is surely clear instead of the 'police by force' approach increasingly adopted by the US and much of Europe.