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Around 1,600 Metropolitan Police officers and staff are under investigation for alleged violence against women or sexual abuse, figures that expose the Metropolitan Police force’s historic failure to root out predators from within.
In 2021, the Met launched a massive review of its nearly 45,000 officers and staff following the rape and murder of Sarah Everard by then-Police Officer Wayne Couzens. Review and review procedures.
The sweeping internal investigation aims to weed out those who behaved inappropriately or criminally and restore trust after a series of scandals in which rogue police officers attacked members of the public.
The Met called the effort under Sir Mark Rowley, who took over Britain’s largest police force a year ago, “the strongest redoubling of standards” in 50 years.
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Stuart Cundy, who oversees standards reviews, said on Monday 100 officers had been sacked for serious misconduct in the past 12 months.
He added that more than 1,000 police officers had been suspended or had their positions restricted while various allegations were investigated.
The 1,600 cases of alleged domestic or sexual abuse being reviewed involve allegations made in the past 10 years involving a serving official or staff member “that did not result in dismissal at the time.”
“Our job is to understand the risk they pose to the public and the risk they pose to colleagues,” Cundey said at the Met’s headquarters in New Scotland Yard.
The Met’s reforms were launched after the murder of Couzens, an officer who served in parliament and the diplomatic protection service. This year another police officer, David Carrick, was convicted of raping multiple women while serving in the same force.
The two cases shocked the UK, shining a spotlight on a culture of misogyny and violence in some police services.
Earlier this year, another active-duty police officer was charged with rape, strangulation and other crimes, some of which he committed while on duty.
Candy said that by “overturning the case”, the Met is exposing more and more offenders.
“The harder we work to identify those who should not be doing police work, the more difficult the cases will be and the more public the stories will be,” Conti said. Police misconduct and incompetence hearings were “too slow”, he added. delayed the entire process.
Court backlogs also mean criminal cases, including this year’s case against a police officer accused of rape, have been delayed until 2025.
The Met wants to increase the number of cases handled by misconduct and incompetence hearings to 60 a month. Rowley also urged the government to transfer the power to sack independent lawyers currently presiding over misconduct proceedings to the police commissioner.
Meanwhile, Deputy Assistant Commissioner for Protection Laurence Taylor said there have been changes in senior command of the PADP force, with a third of the force’s officers having been rotated out and a third more to be rotated by 2025.
On Monday, the Met also drew attention to its efforts to diversify its force, increasing the number of women from 18% to 20% and the number of officers from black and minority ethnic backgrounds from 11% to 20%.
Baroness Louise Casey said in a scathing report after leading an independent inquiry that the Met was guilty of “institutional racism, misogyny and homophobia” and that if it could not be overhauled it should Disband.
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