In response to the first listener, Rowley says he doesn't have the final say on who works in the Met Police.

He says there are independent legal tribunals in place. Rowley says it's "nonsensical" that the Met does not have the power to sack people conducting themselves inappropriately at work.

He adds that tribunals have reinstated people the Met have sacked, and that is a problem.

This is a point Rowley made during his Today interview earlier on, which he said would surprise listeners.

He also explains that police officers aren't under normal employment law and have "a special set of regulations" which apply to them.

"You can understand these in some ways", he says, but adds the regulations "are more complicated than they need to be and that has contributed to this, as has poor decisions".

The commissioner has called on the home secretary to give him more powers to sack officers.

Vee in Woodford wants to know whether Rowley can sack all of the officers in the WhatsApp chat that shared images of dead bodies.

Rowley says openness and transparency always carries a risk, but that's something he's willing to do.

"I think we've failed on that in the past," the Met commissioner says, adding the force is getting "on top of this".

He adds that he wants his first six months to be as transparent as possible.

It's over to questions from the public now.

Nestor now asks Rowley whether he's actually making the perception of the Met worse by setting out the problem in advance.

Rowley says a lot of people won't realise there is a new commissioner in place and it is going to take time for Londoners to gain trust.

Rowley says this week's announcements are an update on how the Met plans to improve the situation, including by working on openness and transparency.

Cutting straight to the chase now, Eddie Nestor asks Rowley why the public should trust him as commissioner of the Met Police.

Rowley tells Nestor he came out of retirement to take on this role "because I knew the scale of the challenge".

"I realised when I was outside policing how much I cared about it, how much it maters to all of us" he says. "And I was frustrated and saddened by what I saw. I felt I could contribute."

"I wish I'd seen more," he adds of his last six years with the Met in a 31-year policing career.

Radio presenter Eddie Nestor begins his questioning by asking Mark Rowley when he first noticed problems in the Met Police.

The 58-year-old took over as the head of the Met in September and worked for the force from 2011 to 2018. He came out of retirement to take on the role.

Tim Stokes
BBC London

Image source, Met Police

The head of the Metropolitan Police, Mark Rowley, has just arrived at BBC Broadcasting House in central London, to face questions by radio host Eddie Nestor.

We'll also be putting your questions to him - so get in touch:

• Call 0800 731 2000
• Text 81333 starting your message with LONDON
• Email hellobbclondon@bbc.co.uk

Sam Hancock
Live reporter

We're not far off hearing from Met Commissioner Mark Rowley on BBC Radio London, where he'll be quizzed by presenter Eddie Nestor, as well as members of the public. (Watch along by pressing the Play button at the top of the page.)

Before then, let's remind ourselves of some of the pressures he faces.

Rebuilding public trust in the Met: This is perhaps the biggest - and toughest - challenge Rowley has to tackle, which is why he's sending dozens of officers to join the Met's professional standards team to help build more rigorous internal processes.

Overcoming public scandals: Linked to that are a number of recent public scandals involving officers - notably the murder of Sarah Everard by serving Met officer Wayne Couzens and the serial rapist David Carrick. (Rowley said this morning there were hundreds of people in the Met who shouldn't be in the force - and he was working to change that.)

Image source, Reuters

Stretched resources: In her recent review of the Met, Baroness Louise Casey said London "no longer has a functioning neighbourhood policing service" - and that the "number of police community support officer has been drastically reduced". This, coupled with Rowley's pledge that officers would "get back" to attending all burglary reports in London, suggests a depleting force - an issue that's been raised in Parliament in recent weeks.

Continue bringing down crime in the capital: In January, the Met recorded a 17% drop in homicide figures from 2021-22 but Rowley said each death was still "one too many", and vowed to tackle violence affecting younger people. "We are not complacent," he said at a boxing gym in Ilford, east London.

We expect Rowley to be questioned on all this and more during the phone-in. Stay tuned.

In the next few moments, Mark Rowley is to be grilled by the BBC's Eddie Nestor and face questions from the public in his first phone-in since becoming commissioner of the Met Police last September.

From 11:00 Rowley will be on BBC Radio London, and you'll be able to watch it at the top our page - just press the Play button.

Of course, we'll bring you all the key lines here.

Let's take a closer look at a poll commissioned by BBC London on trust in the Met Police.

The survey, conducted by YouGov and designed to be representative of Londoners, paints a painful picture for the force.

Among the results, it found:

• 73% of participants believed the force treated some people in society differently
• More than six in ten said they were not confident the Met’s commissioner would “root out” corrupt officers
• 43% now view the organisation more negatively than they did 12 months ago, with 42% saying they distrusted it overall
• Four in ten would support a family member or friend if they wished to join the Met, with 30% saying that they wouldn’t mind either way
• 34% answered they trusted individual officers, with 31% saying they distrusted them

Find out more about the survey here.

Adriana Elgueta & Tarah Welsh & Jay Gardner
BBC News

As we've been reporting, 73% of Londoners in a poll commissioned by the BBC have said they believe officers treat some people in society differently to others.

Kai, 17, joined Voyage, a Hackney-based charity which educates young people about their rights in fighting racism and discrimination, as a result of having previous bad experiences with police.

On one occasion he was watching a play at The Globe theatre with his mother when he found himself being confronted by an off-duty officer in the audience who said his mother's bag had touched the policeman's back.

"He threatened to arrest me while he was off-duty, he turned around and flashed his badge at me. When I tried to see his badge again to report him, he refused," he said.

It was not the first time Kai was confronted by police. When he was just 15 he was questioned by officers as he waited outside a shop for a friend.

• Read more of Kai's story here.

A string of scandals has ramped up the pressure on the Met Police in recent years. All that came to a head with a damning review, published last month, which found the force to be institutionally racist, homophobic and misogynist.

Here's a reminder of what Baroness Casey found:

• Bullying and "boys' club" culture was rife, and the force could be dismantled if it does not improve
• The force is “failing women and children”, with overworked and inexperienced officers handling rape cases and “major inadequacies” in child protection
• The Met is “unable to police itself” and predatory behaviour has been “allowed to flourish”
• Austerity has profoundly affected the force, with frontline teams “over-stretched and under-supported”
• "London no longer has a functioning neighbourhood policing service," she concluded

Read more: From rape cases ruined to a Sikh officer's beard cut, here are five shocking findings from Casey's review

A woman who was sexually abused by a serving Met police officer as a 14-year-old in the 1990s says she believes the force is moving in the right direction.

Liz waived her right to anonymity to speak to the BBC. Her abuser, Anthony Smith, was jailed last August for raping and sexually assaulting three young girls.

Liz, who asked us not to use her full name, said: "I do think that if the public can see that people are being sacked or they're being held to account for what they've done, we can move that forward, but it's a huge task to undertake."

She hopes her example will encourage other abuse survivors to come forward, saying: "If we talk about it, we can make a difference. If we pretend it doesn't happen, nothing's ever going to change."

Earlier, the Met commissioner told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that the force was creating a new re-vetting process for serving officers.

Sir Mark Rowley said those who fail this process will have to leave the organisation.

So far, as part of this, the Met has checked 10,000 of its 50,000 employees against the Police National Database.

It's revealed 38 potential cases of misconduct and 55 cases of off-duty association with a criminal.

We're putting your questions to the head of the Metropolitan Police, Mark Rowley, from 11:00.

He'll be in the BBC London studio with Eddie Nestor for the first phone-in since he's been commissioner - and there'll be plenty to put to him.

If you want to get involved:

• Call 0800 731 2000
• Text 81333 starting your message with LONDON
• Email hellobbclondon@bbc.co.uk

Patsy Stevenson, who was arrested at a vigil for Sarah Everard in March 2021 and subsequently harassed online by serving and ex-police officers, says she's not "holding my breath" when it comes to change in the Metropolitan Police.

"I don't trust them, which is scary because a lot of women out there who won't trust the police for the reason they don't think anything will be done or for the reason that they might be speaking to someone who is an abuser themselves."

Former Met Police officer Wayne Couzens is serving a whole-life sentence for the kidnap, rape and murder of 33-year-old Everard in March 2021.

The chair of the London Assembly's Police and Crime Committee has criticised the Met's vetting procedures after the force's commissioner admitted 161 of his officers had criminal convictions.

Asked on BBC Radio 4's Today programme whether she was prepared to accept this number of officers with convictions, Suan Hall said: "No. How on earth did they ever get through?"

She went on to say that the convictions prove that the vetting service "isn't fit for purpose" and the bar should be set much higher.

An open letter from Met chief Mark Rowley to the home secretary and the mayor of London revealed that 161 Met officers have criminal convictions, which include serious traffic offences, dishonesty or violence and convictions for sexual offences.

Hall said there needed to be confidence in the force.

The vast majority of officers are "fine, good people that look after us," she added. "We have a duty of care to those police officers".

The head of the Metropolitan Police admitted in an open letter last night that 161 of his officers have criminal convictions.

Of these:

• 76 are for serious traffic offences such as drink-driving
• 49 are for dishonesty or violence
• eight committed the offences as police officers and are still with the force

Overall, the Met employs about 34,500 police officers.

Its commissioner, Mark Rowley, said he was considering banning anyone with convictions, other than the most minor, from the force.