After last year’s murder of Sarah Everard by serving Met Police officer Wayne Couzens, a review of the screening of potential police officers was commissioned.
A watchdog has warned that hundreds, if not thousands, of police officers who should have failed vetting tests may be serving in England and Wales.
HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services discovered instances in which criminal behavior was dismissed as a “one-off”; applicants with links to “extensive criminality” in their families were hired as police officers; warnings a prospective officer could pose a risk to the public were disregarded; officers transferred between forces despite a history of complaints or allegations of misconduct; and basic errors that led to the wrong vetting decisions.
The watchdog examined:
- 11,277 policemen and personnel in eight police departments;
- evaluated 725 vetting files;
- examined 264 complaints and investigations of wrongdoing; and
interviewed 42 persons.
The research concluded that some employees had criminal records, others were suspected of committing severe crimes, some had significant unpaid bills, and some had families with ties to organized crime.
A total of 131 incidents in which inspectors deemed vetting judgments to be “questionable at best” were uncovered, and in 68 of those cases, inspectors disagreed with the decision to provide vetting clearance.
Matt Parr, Inspector of Police, stated: “It is too simple for undesirables to join and remain in the police force.
“If the police are to regain the public’s trust and protect its female officers and personnel, vetting must become far more stringent and sexual misconduct must be treated with greater gravity.
“Over the past three or four years, it seems realistic for me to assert that hundreds, if not thousands, of people, have been recruited for whom we have serious concerns… it’s not in the tens, it’s at least in the hundreds.”
Mr. Parr stated that the government’s mandate to hire 20,000 more officers by March of next year “cannot be used as an excuse” for inadequate vetting.
“The substantial fall in public trust in policing is linked to the occurrence of some of these horrible incidents we’ve seen in recent years,” he continued. “If you want to reduce these types of situations, you should have a higher standard for who gets in and who stays in.”
Priti Patel, in her capacity as home secretary, commissioned the inquiry following the murder of Sarah Everard.
In March 2021, Ms. Everard was murdered by serving Met Police officer Wayne Couzens, who used his police warrant card to abduct her under the pretense of an arrest.
Female police officers are vulnerable to “reprehensible behavior by male colleagues,”
The inquiry did not investigate the circumstances of Couzens’ recruiting, but its findings raise doubts as to whether enhanced security checks would have prevented him from joining the Metropolitan Police.
An “alarming amount” of female police reported being subjected to “appalling behavior by male colleagues,” according to the investigators.
Simon Harding, a former detective chief inspector of the Metropolitan Police, stated, “People must feel they can come forward, report misconduct, and then that person must be removed from society as soon as possible; the current process is too slow.”
Among its 43 suggestions, HMICFRS stated that the standards utilized for assessing and investigating complaints of misconduct, as well as the quality and consistency of screening, required improvement.
Also stated was the need for improved guidelines on workplace conduct and definitions of misogynistic and predatory behavior.
Home secretary dissatisfied
Suella Braverman, the home secretary, stated that it was “disappointing that HMICFRS discovered that, in a tiny number of instances, forces are taking unwarranted risks with vetting.”
“I have been clear that the culture and standards of the police must change, and that public confidence in policing must be restored.
“Chief constables must absorb these lessons and act immediately on the contents of this report,”
President of the National Police Chiefs Council, Martin Hewitt, stated: “We cannot risk predatory or discriminatory individuals slipping through the cracks as a result of flawed processes and decisions, so chief constables, with the support of national bodies, will act on these recommendations and fix the problems.
Police chiefs are committed to resolving these issues expeditiously, comprehensively, and permanently to maintain the trust of the public and their employees.
