Met Police to overhaul recruitment to ‘weed out’ homophobes amid intensifying backlash

The Metropolitan Police is reportedly reviewing its recruitment processes to “weed out” homophobes after months of backlash over discrimination within its ranks.

The Met has faced severe criticism in recent months, after inquests found that police failings “probably” contributed to the deaths of gay men brutally murdered by serial killer Stephen Port in 2014 and 2015.

Following a years-long investigation, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) published its Operation Hotton learning report last month, which evidenced extensive racist, homophobic and misogynistic discrimination and harassment by Met Police officers.

Chief inspector Declan Halton-Woodward, a gay man and communications lead for the Met’s LGBT+ staff network, told MyLondon that he had seen a “dip” in the confidence of the Met’s LGBT+ employees since the report’s publication and the inquests, but said: “The Met is a different organisation now to the time of the Stephen Port murders.”

However, IOPC regional director Sal Naseem said last month that issues of discrimination within the Met “are not isolated or historic”, and added: “The MPS has to enjoy the trust and confidence of its own officers from diverse communities before it can hope to bridge the gap in trust and confidence with the communities it serves.”

The Met Police are now reviewing recruitment interview questions to “weed out” bigots and homophobes, he said.

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