Call for papers - After the Casey Report: how can the Metropolitan Police Service secure the trust of Londoners?

Conference aims

In March 2023, Baron Casey of Blackstock DBE CB published the ‘Final Report. An independent review into the standards of behaviour and internal culture of the Metropolitan Police Service’, which found institutional racism, sexism and homophobia within the Met. Her report was ‘rigorous, stark and unsparing’ and spoke of the immense scale of the challenge that lay before the Met in regaining the confidence of the public.

This conference aims to unite serving police officers and academics to consider how the Met can meet that colossal challenge and re-earn the public’s trust. It will discuss solutions and strategies to regain public trust.

Conference themes

Themes include, but are not limited to:

• police accountability – how should they demonstrate to communities what they do and how they do it
• public trust in the police – how should the police ensure all parts of the community have faith in them to discharge their duties without fear or favour
• police engagement with the public – how can the police listen better, and respond to, the needs of all sections of the community
• higher standards – how to police with pride
• organisational values – how can the Met attract the right people, train them properly and retain them?
• internal culture – how should the police treat each other; how should they respond when things go wrong; and what should happen if that response goes wrong?
• enforcing the law (stop and search / use of force etc)
• external culture (wining back the trust of disenfranchised sections of society_
• how should the Met be organised and managed
• how to ensure the integrity of officers
• tackling racism, sexism and homophobia within the Met
• whistleblowing
• connecting to communities
• earning the trust of women after Sarah Everard and Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman
• earning the respect of children
• accountability and transparency
• bullying and harassment within the service
• police pay
• policing by consent
• police training
• enforcing the Law.

Dates and deadlines

• Conference abstract submission deadline: midnight Thursday 21st September 2023.
• Conference to be held: Tuesday 7th November 2023.

Abstract submissions

Please save your abstract with the author’s name and send it to judith.bourne@stmarys.ac.uk by the deadline listed. Panels and papers of 20 minutes are invited. Abstracts should be no longer than 750 words for panel proposals, and 250 words for individual papers. A 200 word biography of each presenter should also be attached.

We welcome papers from police officers, academics at all stages of their careers, lawyers, and independent researchers.