Responding to the news that the Metropolitan Police are the only police force in the UK not to meet their recruitment targets, Liberal Democrat London Assembly Member and Police & Crime Spokesperson Caroline Pidgeon AM said:
“Londoners are crying out for a return to real community policing and the news today that the Met is the only police service in England and Wales not to meet its recruitment targets will rightly concern a lot of Londoners.
“The recruitment issues faced by the Met have likely been made worse by the repeated scandals of the last few years, with potential new recruits put off by the findings of institutional racism, misogyny and homophobia.
“This only goes to show just how vital it is that the Met succeeds in cleaning up its act. The Met needs to be a police service that is representative of the people it serves and it must ensure that the recruitment and vetting processes are robust to avoid the mistakes of the past.”