Over 1000 Met Police Officers Suspended Or On Restrictive Duties
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Over 1,000 Metropolitan Police officers have been suspended or are on restricted duties as bosses try to identify and remove corrupt and incompetent staff. This is equivalent to 1 in 34 of their staff.
Assistant Commissioner Stuart Cundy has said that it will likely take at least 2 years for the force to remove corrupt officers, stating that they were in a paradox as the more they investigate, the higher the chances that more cases will be revealed.
100 officers were sacked last year for gross misconduct, which is 66% higher than the normal rate. The number of suspended officers has also risen drastically compared to last year, with 201 officers currently suspended compared to 69 officers in September last year.
Assistant Commissioner Cundy went on to say that there are plans to hold roughly 30 misconduct hearings and 30 gross incompetence hearings each month. This means that as many as 60 officers may face the sack each month. The Met has revealed that there are 275 officers waiting for gross misconduct hearings, almost double that of last year.
The move has been brought about by the convictions of former officers Carrick and Couzens, who both served on the Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command (PADP). The PADP is currently being overhauled as a result, with one in three officers being removed from the command that guards the Parliament and London embassies. The reform of the unit will see officers no longer be able to stay in the unit, but be rotated to other areas of the Met every eight years.
