The Casey Review is a comprehensive and important report for the Metropolitan Police and wider UK policing. Unfortunately however, we live in an age of short attention spans, and most will simply not be motivated enough to spend days reading an epic novel-sized policing report. Therefore, Rank Success commissioned an overview to provide the gist and encourage more officers, senior leaders, and other stakeholders to take note.
Context of the Casey Review
“Every report, review or inspection of the police starts with the positive side. Their bravery and courage… readiness to run towards danger when everyone else is running from it, putting their own lives at risk to protect others. Their day-to-day willingness to deal with people who break the law. They deserve our support and respect. The Met has exceptional strengths and draws the admiration of the public with its adaptability, bravery and resilience in difficult times.”
Baroness Louise Casey was appointed to lead a review by the former Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service, Dame Cressida Dick. This was following the kidnap, rape, and murder of Sarah Everard by a serving Met Police officer, Wayne Couzens.
The purpose was clear:
“To undertake a review into the standards of behaviour and internal culture of the Metropolitan Police Service and make recommendations on the actions required.”
This would then determinine “whether the Metropolitan Police’s leadership, recruitment, vetting, training, culture and communications support the standards the public should expect.” Baroness Casey began her review in February 2022. It was published on Tuesday, March 21st, 2023.
As it happens, just before publication of the Casey review, another former officer David Carrick was being sentenced for historic offences committed against women whilst serving. As just the latest in a string of high profile abuses of power and criminal activity by serving officers, the importance of the report was clear.
“Policing needs to accept that the job can also attract predators and bullies. It needs to keep them out when they try to get in, to root them out where they exist, and to guard against the corrosive effects that their actions have on trust, confidence and the fundamental Peelian principles of policing by consent.” – Casey Review
Baroness Casey’s Review Lands… With a Loud Thud
The Casey report is comprehensive, raising a mix of controversial issues. It makes 16 recommendations for significant changes and reform to the Met. But at 363 pages and 120,000 words (equivalent to a 500-page novel!), few cops will have read or digested this important document. The strategic summary and recommendations amount to 36 pages alone.
With this in mind, I took on the challenge of summarising the whole report into a short 10-minute video brief. This has helped communicate the important findings and recommendations to as wide an audience as possible. This exclusive summary video produced by Rank Success is for the public, busy cops, senior police leaders, PCCs, Mayors, and other interested parties. It’s a representative and fair summary of the comprehensive written report, capturing the broad zeitgeist concerning policing and the Metropolitan police service specifically…
Towards the end, the video includes further reading suggestions, potential promotion interview questions and presentation scenarios, plus further support for aspiring UK police promotion candidates. The challenges facing policing are also included, a subject often used in presentation scenarios as part of police promotion boards.
I hope this gives busy cops aspiring to promotion (especially to Inspector ranks and above!) some useful strategic insights and food for thought. In addition, this video may be a helpful briefing to communicating Baroness Casey’s flagship report to all levels and stakeholders within policing.
Here’s the full Casey report if you want to dive deeper.
I’ve captured the key points in the video above, but just to give a flavour, even the 10 chapter themes demonstrate the scope of Casey’s investigation was immense. I summarise the chapter contents as follows:
- Met performance and public confidence
- Resources and workforce planning
- Recruitment, leadership and CPD
- Frontline policing: Specialisms and BCUs
- Public protection and investigation
- Specialist firearms and PaDP units
- Managing misconduct and grievances
- Governance, scrutiny and accountability
- Bullying and discrimination
- Neighbourhood policing and public engagement
Some of the findings on leadership and change were some of the most damning. Consider the following section of the report for example.
“The Senior Leadership Team are complete strangers to me.” – Casey Review survey comment
There are however plenty of examples in policing where change is done well, and senior leaders are far from aloof. Those going for promotion (especially fast track candidates) would do well to think about their future contribution…
Going for Promotion?
Officers and staff across other forces may recognise cross cutting themes relating to their own organisational culture. Not least including the report’s observation that promotion was found to be unfair, as per the screengrab below…
In relation to fairness, Rank Success exists to level the playing field here, ensuring great cops and police can also do well in competitive promotion processes. This isn’t anything new, but I’m currently drafting some new content about fairness which may spark your interest. For now, you my Twitter polls on police promotion fairness were very enlightening, suggesting PDRs as a solution…
The implications of the Casey Review for policing have been well-versed. Whether it’s the warnings about breaking up the Met, or even if the long-standing Peelian Principles have been broken. Either way, aspiring promotion candidates and police leaders are the ones who will be painting a brighter future for the Met and beyond.
If you’re an aspiring promotion candidate seeking more comprehensive and structured preparation aids towards your leadership ambitions, you can also download a rank-specific digital toolkit together with my recorded Promotion Masterclass video. This is bespoke, tried and tested material to help you target your limited time on effective preparation. Successfully promoted officers have described it as a “super-briefing” and “worth its weight in gold”!
PS: People Don’t Read Long Strategies or Reports!
“Writing is 1 percent inspiration, and 99 percent elimination.” – Louise Brooks
Whether you agree or not, most people simply don’t like reading long reports or strategic documents. I’m sorry to say it, but it’s true. That’s why I commissioned this 10-minute summary of the Casey Review. You have to start with bitesize information to get people to chew on more. That’s the way society mostly is, and of course the police are the public.
With this in mind, please get in touch if you’d like to commission Rank Success to provide fair, accurate, and accessible summaries of your own organisation’s reports. This is an important communicative step most miss, then wonder why it seems no-one has registered their strategy. I.e. creating massive documents that ufortunately few can manage or that no-one wants to read.
Rank Success is now offering this new service to forces and other organisations, having accumulated a wealth of experience and skills in capturing the essence of important, lengthy reports and strategies. Whether it’s the HMICFRS PEEL summaries or the well-received Strategic Review of Policing, having a one-page infographic, executive summary, and/or video highlights reel can really enhance engagement and readership. This crucial finishing touch costs less than you think!
Kind Regards, Steve
Want to go further right now? Hit the ground running with your promotion preparation. Get your personal digital promotion toolkit, and/or my Police Promotion Masterclass. You can also contact me to arrange personal coaching support. If you first want to explore completely free content, I have a collection of videos, eGuides, a podcast.
