Receive free Metropolitan Police Service UK updates
We’ll ship you a myFT Daily Digest e-mail rounding up the most recent Metropolitan Police Service UK information each morning.
About 1,600 Metropolitan Police officers and staff are being investigated for alleged violence against women or sexual abuse, figures that expose the historic failure of London’s police power to root out predators inside its ranks.
The Met launched an enormous vetting and overview technique of its almost 45,000 officers and staff after the 2021 rape and homicide of Sarah Everard by Wayne Couzens, then a serving officer.
The sweeping inner probe is an try to weed out these responsible of misconduct or crimes and restore belief after a string of scandals about rogue police officers attacking members of the general public.
The Met has referred to as the hassle below Sir Mark Rowley, who took over command of the UK’s largest police power a 12 months in the past, its “strongest doubling down on standards” in 50 years.
Stuart Cundy, the deputy assistant commissioner main the requirements overview, mentioned on Monday that 100 officers had been dismissed for gross misconduct prior to now 12 months.
More than 1,000 officers, he added, have been suspended or had their roles restricted whereas investigations into a wide range of allegations are undertaken.
The 1,600 circumstances of alleged home or sexual abuse below overview associated to allegations from the final 10 years that concerned a serving officer or member of staff “where the allegation did not result in a dismissal at the time”.
“Our job is to understand the risk they pose to the public and the risk they pose to their colleagues,” Cundy mentioned at New Scotland Yard, the Met’s headquarters.
Reforms to the Met have been initiated within the wake of the homicide dedicated by Couzens, an officer then serving within the parliamentary and diplomatic safety (PADP) unit. This 12 months, one other officer, David Carrick, was convicted for the rape of a number of women whereas he was serving in the identical unit.
Both circumstances shocked the UK, placing the highlight on a tradition of misogyny and violence in elements of the police.
Another serving Met officer was charged earlier this 12 months with rape, strangulation and different crimes, a few of which he dedicated whereas on obligation.
Cundy mentioned that by “turning over every stone” the Met was uncovering a rising variety of offenders.
“The harder we work to identify those people who shouldn’t be in policing, the more difficult cases, the more difficult stories will become public,” Cundy mentioned. He added that police misconduct and incompetence hearings have been “too slow” and dragging the entire course of out.
Backlogs within the courts additionally imply that felony circumstances, together with for the officer charged this 12 months with rape, have been being pushed again to 2025.
The Met hopes to extend the variety of circumstances handled at misconduct and incompetence hearings to 60 a month. Rowley has additionally pressed the federal government to switch powers of dismissal to police commissioners from impartial attorneys who presently chair misconduct proceedings.
Meanwhile, the senior command of the PADP unit has been modified, a 3rd of officers within the unit have been rotated out, and an extra third can be by 2025, in accordance with Laurence Taylor, the deputy assistant commissioner accountable for safety.
The Met additionally drew consideration on Monday to its efforts to diversify the power by bringing the proportion of women up from 18 to twenty per cent, and the variety of officers from black and minority ethnic backgrounds from 11 to twenty per cent.
In a damning report launched after she led an impartial inquiry, Baroness Louise Casey mentioned the Met was responsible of “institutional racism, misogyny and homophobia” and needs to be damaged up if it couldn’t impact a whole overhaul.
