Two rapists among Met officers not properly vetted

According to a report, two serial rapists were among 131 officers and employees in the Metropolitan Police who committed crimes or misconduct after they were not properly investigated. Among the police officers who were not properly investigated was David Carrick, one of the UK's worst sex offenders, and Cliff Mitchellwere. Despite a previous rape charge, Mitchell was allowed to join the service in 2020 after a vetting committee, partially aimed at increasing diversity, reversed a decision to refuse him. The cases were revealed in a vetting report of the ten years leading up to the end of March 2023. Assistant Commissioner Rachel Williams said that the public will be extremely worried by the lapse in vetting procedures.

The study, she said, was part of "ongoing efforts to ensure the highest quality across the Met. Drug use, violent assaults, and affray were among the other serious offences committed by officers and employees.

Abandoning vetting checks on officers was a dereliction of the Met's obligation to keep London safe,

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said. "I've requested Chief Inspector of Constabulary to perform an investigation as I seek to regain confidence in the department's ability to protect and serve the public.

Carrick, who was sentenced to 37 years in prison for his crimes, was not properly investigated in 2017, and checks did not reveal an accusation of domestic assault against him. Despite a previous suspicion of raping a child, Mitchell, who ran a campaign of sex on two victims, was hired. His appointment was initially refused due to the allegation of vetting, but a veting committee considered his application, which has since been suspended. Parts of the initiative were designed to combat disproportionality in the workplace. The commission, which was established in 2018, reversed the decision to refuse vetting of 114 officers and employees, of whom 25 officers went on to commit misconduct or have been charged with a criminal conviction. According to the report, senior officers were placed on political pressure and were expected to meet recruitment deadlines or lose funds to other services. Thousands of police officers and workers were not properly trained during a national recruitment drive from July 2019 to March 2023, according to the study, which was published on Thursday. In a scramble to find more than 4,500 recruits, senior officers at the Met decided not to comply with national guidelines. Thousands of references were not checked, and vetting shortcuts led to some officers and employees who should not have been in the force. According to the report, this contributed to police-perpetrated harm and harmed public confidence. For those who were cut during austerity, the Police Uplift Programme was supposed to recruit 20,000 officers within three and a half years, and if targets were not met, funds were ringfenced and lost if goals were not achieved.

Senior chiefs took a nascent career in the hopes of beating what would become unachievable recruitment goals and expanding the Metropolitan Police Service's (MPS) workforce at speed,

the survey stated. "The primary focus seemed to be on speed and output; this unintentionally damaged credibility.

According to the study, 5,073 officers and staff were not properly tested, of whom 4,528 had no Special Branch vetting checks, 431 had no Ministry of Defence checks, and 114 had a veting refusal overturned by a Met internal committee. There were only limited checks on another 3,338 people who were scheduled for a vetting renewal. Out of nearly 27,300 applicants, the Met estimated that 1,200 people who joined the service had their vetting refusal under normal circumstances. If at all, 17,355 officers and employees did not have their records properly checked between 2018 and 2022, respectively. The Met hasn't reviewed any of these files, but it estimates that about 250 of these employees would not have started a career if their references had been checked.

'Farcical situation'

According to the report, senior officers had been subjected to political pressure and were expected to meet recruitment deadlines or lose funds to other services.

There were deviations from policy and practice, overconfidence in the ability to recruit at scale, and a lack of resources in vetting increased risk.

Approximately 1,500 officers have been dismissed in what has been described as a clean-up of the service since Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley took over the UK's top policing service in September 2022.

We are being transparent and transparent about past vetting and recruiting practices that resulted, in some cases, in unsuitable people joining the Met,

Williams said in a tweet.

We've been open with Londoners on several occasions about recent changes in our professional standards approach.

We discovered that some historical practices did not meet the new recruiting and vetting requirements we have today. We identified these problems ourselves and quickly resolved them, while still making sure no risk to the public has been properly and efficiently managed, assuaging any risk to them.

Every year, the Met recruits hundreds of officers and employees, the overwhelming majority of whom are committed to safeguarding the public,

she said.

Today's report, according to Paula Dodds, chairwoman of the Metropolitan Police Federation,

a farcical situation in which striking a numerical target of recruits has taken precedence over normal checks and balances. "The brave, brave, and hard-working colleagues we represent are the first to say that the small minority of officers who are unable to serve should not be allowed to serve.

Can the Met rebuild trust?

Sima Kotecha, senior UK reporter In recent years, commentators have wondered how so many poor apples have been able to find jobs in Britain's largest market. The report's findings would not be surprising to them. Some have raised serious concerns about the current vetting process, accusing them in the past of being "slack. Now is the question: how many people who shouldn't be in the service because they would have failed the tests that weren't made? According to the Met, the numbers of those individuals are small, but some will argue that it takes one person to break the rules and do something horrific, such as commit rape or murder. These findings may contribute to mistrust in the service, and some Londoners are likely to ask how they can have faith in their officers when these mistakes were made. The Met police will be hoping that their reaction to the inquiry that they've improved their processes after the mistakes were made will all be able to put an end to those concerns. Onsoundsand, follow BBC Radio London on Soundsand. Facebook,XandInstagram.