#HoganHowe on the ropes. Times article The Struggling Commissioner The Metropolitan Police has questions to answer about its integrity. So far Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe is not answering them To lose two Metropolitan Police Commissioners is unfortunate. To lose three would seem like carelessness. Yet there is no question that after the early departures of his two immediate predecessors, Sir Paul Stephenson and Lord Blair, the current incumbent, Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, is struggling. Sir Bernard was appointed as a tough no-nonsense crime fighter, able to return the Met to basics. Yet the question to which he was supposed to be the answer has changed. And the change does not suit him. The Metropolitan Police faces a crisis of public confidence about its integrity, its reputation and its accountability. This requires a leader sure footed, well informed and able to command public confidence. Sir Bernard looks good on a horse, managing the crowds at football matches, but he is performing less well in the more politically sensitive role that has been thrust upon him. Take his response to the revelations that came in the review of the Stephen Lawrence investigation. Its account of the culture and competence of the Met was shocking. The force is revealed as defensive and underhand. There is a strong suggestion of corruption. The failure to disclose information from the Macpherson Inquiry — one of the most high-profile inquiries into the police in modern times — was startling. This behaviour may not have happened on Sir Bernard’s watch, but it is his job to demonstrate that he understands the depth of the problem and is determined to deal with it. Instead he has seemed lost, lacking in grip. At the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee, he appeared poorly briefed and unable to give anything like satisfactory answers to questions from MPs about documents that were shredded, papers that told a story of corruption. He did not even appear to have asked his predecessors what happened, an elementary preparation for his committee appearance. Sadly, this is not an isolated incident. From the moment when it became obvious that there were serious questions over police behaviour in the case of Andrew Mitchell — the affair known as “Plebgate” — Sir Bernard bungled the response. He accepted the word of his officers publicly, raising questions over the independence of the investigation that followed. He allowed this investigation to linger on and partial accounts of its conclusions to appear in the press. Within the force Sir Bernard is not as popular as he was on his appointment. Some of this is because he has had to make large cuts in the budget and to do so rapidly, making up for lost time after the Olympics. Yet much of the decline is due to his abrasive style. The retirement of Chris Allison, perhaps the man most responsible for the successful policing of the London 2012 Olympics, has been accelerated, say colleagues, by his poor relationship with the Commissioner. At any time, and in any body, it would be disturbing to hear that a former senior employee’s assessment of a leader is that “unless you say what he wants to hear you get sidelined or shouted at”. Yet this is particularly disturbing to hear of a leader of this organisation at this time. As the truth finally emerges of police misconduct in the Hillsborough disaster (with questions remaining for Sir Bernard himself) and as even the crime figures that the police put great store in seem suspect, the Met needs to be open-minded and self-critical. This is the worst moment for the Met Commissioner to be shouting down critics and dispensing with those who have a good institutional memory. Sir Bernard may feel that he is beset by troubles that were not of his making. That is the nature of the job he sought. Now he must show that he can change as the challenge has changed. #FireHim
Posted on: Sat, 29 Mar 2014 12:18:47 +0000
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