Statement from Sir Mark Rowley, Commissioner, on the five‑year anniversary of Sarah Everard’s murder

Sarah Everard should still be here. Five years have passed since her senseless and devastating murder. What happened to her was a profound betrayal: of her, of her family and loved ones, and of every person who places their trust in policing.

Sarah was murdered by a serving Metropolitan Police officer, Wayne Couzens. That fact is as devastating today as it was in 2021. It was an unthinkable abuse of power and a total violation of the values that the Met, and policing stands for.

On the day I heard what he had done, I felt devastated for the immense harm his actions caused to the trust that underpins our relationship with the communities we serve. What he did shook policing to its core. It made decent, dedicated officers and staff across the country furious that one of our own could commit such a monstrous crime.

We will always be deeply sorry: for the unimaginable harm done to Sarah, for the trauma endured by her family – who have shown extraordinary dignity in the face of unbearable grief – and for the profound damage inflicted on the trust Londoners should be able to place in their police service.

When I became Commissioner the year after Sarah’s murder, the Met stood at a pivotal moment, one demanding honesty about catastrophic systemic failings, and a determination to put them right. We have mobilised the good majority of officers and staff in confronting painful truths about our standards, our culture and our systemic failures. They have been and are at the heart of everything we’ve achieved in our unprecedented drive to clean up the Met.

We have undertaken the biggest integrity reset UK policing has ever seen, doubling vetting failure rates and removed 1500 officers and staff in three years. To tackle those who risk corrupting our integrity we have toughened our vetting processes and standards, and we have re‑examined a decade’s worth of allegations of sexual and domestic abuse involving Met officers and staff and forced a change in the law to enable us to remove them.

This tragic case also brought into sharp focus the need for a national reset in how policing, and society more widely, prioritises tackling violence against women and girls, as starkly illustrated by the Angiolini Review. With the painful reality that far too many remain victim‑survivors and still do not feel safe, this anniversary is more than symbolic. It is a reminder of our duty to the millions of women and girls who move through London every day with a right to feel protected, not fearful; respected, not dismissed; believed, not doubted.

We know we have not always lived up to that responsibility and must continue to repair the damage inflicted on the trust of women and girls in policing. I don’t just see this as an operational priority – it is also a moral one, and one I am fiercely committed to.