Many would have hoped that the departure of Dame Cressida Dick from the post of Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police might have heralded new dawn, a time when the Met prioritised tackling the serious crime that afflicts London and its residents instead of being obsessed by diversity matters. Unfortunately, if an article in City Journal is to be believed, the new Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley, is just as mired in the swamp of diversity obsessions than have some of his predecessors been.

Noel Yaxley, a writer from City Journal spoke about a recent visit that Sir Mark Rowley made to Stratford in East London, an area that I once knew well and which has for years been a crime riddled area with 143 violent and sexual offences being reported to the police in September 2022 alone. Mr Yaxley noted that during the visit to an area that badly needs better and more effective policing, Sir Mark was positively bubbling with enthusiasm about the Met’s diversity policies and the need to get more women in to policing.

Mr Yaxley added that this visit was for partly for the purpose of getting recruits for a police force that like others in England and Wales is haemorrhaging officers at an alarming rate. However Mr Yaxley added:

With the number of voluntary resignations from England and Wales police forces up 72 percent since last year, these efforts to attract new officers are sorely needed. Yet Rowley appeared more concerned with virtue signalling than with promoting the police force.

“I am really pleased that we have achieved our highest ever female representation as part of the Met reaching its greatest ever total number of officers,” he said.

Reading Mr Yaxley’s piece it seems to me that Sir Mark is worryingly more concerned with what sex a police officer is rather than whether or not they can do their damned jobs properly and protect the public. Sadly like so many other senior police officers in the UK Sir Mark is more worried about whether a recruit has a penis or not instead of wanting the best individual for a police role.

Mr Yaxley added:

Rowley is devoted to diversity and inclusion. “The evidence across the world is that the best companies and organisations benefit from diverse teams,” he has said. “It is not only about fairness, it is about being the most effective in a complex world.”

The world is indeed complex, but London’s violent crime has risen steadily in recent years. Police in London recorded a quarter of a million violent crime offenses in 2021-22, a 10 percent increase from the previous year. A major driver of violence in the capital has been gang warfare. According to a Sky News investigation, roughly 200 gangs operate in London.

Londoners did not need yet another devotee at the altar of Diversity Inclusion and Equity. The capital and its residents needed an officer who would deal with the increasing crime and worsening street safety. Unfortunately yet another diversity obsessive is what Londoners have been landed with and I suspect that Sir Mark will continue to fiddle with diversity targets and statistics whilst the city burns.

London deserved better. Unfortunately when it comes to policing, London obviously didn’t get anything better than the diversity obsessed Commissioners that they’ve had to deal with over the last decade or so. A major opportunity to make London’s policing work for Londoners instead of for the diversity and inclusion obsessives has been lost and London I suspect will continue to spiral down into becoming a crime infested cess pit.