Faith in Met police has plummeted and signs are it will only sink lower

Claims it let a key suspect in Stephen Lawrence murder slip away show how the force continues to be weighed down by its past

It has been a torrid few years, largely self-inflicted, for the Metropolitan police, Britain's biggest police force and the standard bearer for policing in the UK. In the first half of this year alone, it was revealed that it missed a serial sex attacker in its ranks, David Carrick, even when there were repeated warnings about him. Then came the Casey review after Wayne Couzens's murder of Sarah Everard, which showed a force ridden with sexism, racism and prejudice, too often failing the public and people in its own workforce.

These failings came after about three years' worth of blunders and wrongdoing so eye-catching that they have shattered confidence in the Met. From nauseating hate messages shared among staff, to officers photographing the dead, to a leadership more concerned with denial than cleaning up the force.