Two rapists among Met officers not properly vetted
A shocking new report has revealed that over 130 Metropolitan Police officers and staff committed crimes or serious misconduct after the force failed to investigate them properly. Among those who slipped through the net were two serial rapists, including David Carrick and Cliff Mitchell. In Mitchell's case, he was allowed to join in 2020 even though he had been accused of child rape; a vetting committee overturned the initial decision to reject him because they were under pressure to increase diversity in the force.
The investigation, which looked at the ten years leading up to March 2023, found that the Met was under massive political pressure to meet hiring targets. Senior bosses took shortcuts to recruit over 4,500 officers quickly, or they would have lost government funding. Because of this rush, thousands of references were never checked, and national security guidelines were ignored.
The report highlights some staggering numbers. Around 5,000 officers and staff were not tested correctly, and more than 4,500 of those had no Special Branch background checks at all. Out of more than 27,000 people who applied, the Met estimates that 1,200 recruits would likely have been rejected if the rules had been followed properly. Since 2018, over 17,000 employees had their records checked poorly or not at all.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood described the failure to check these officers as a "dereliction of duty" and has ordered a full investigation. The Met says it has since fixed these vetting problems and has dismissed 1,500 unsuitable officers since September 2022. However, many Londoners are now asking how they can trust the police when so many "bad apples" were hired on purpose to hit numerical targets.
