The Met’s Issues with Corruption

Laura Bloomfield | Content Writer

Thenews has been inundated with stories about the Metropolitan Police Force and their officers’ crimes. Particularly regarding Met police officer, David Carrick, who has recently admitted to 49 offences, including 24 counts of rape. Carrick abused his power as an armed Met police officer to put fear into his victims.

The Met has apologised after it was revealed that Carrick had come to their attention over 9 incidents between 2000 and 2021, including rape allegations. No action was taken, and Carrick was promoted in 2009 to become a member of an armed unit: the Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection command, who guarded embassies, Downing Street, and the Houses of Parliament.

The fact that Carrick was able to continue working as a police officer, and even be promoted, with the Met knowing there were allegations against him is incredibly disturbing. Adding to this is the horrifying fact that, in 2022, nearly 15,000 allegations were made against Met Police officers and staff.

These allegations include harassment, racism, sexism, homophobia, sexual assault, and excessive use of force. Six in ten allegations referred to the Met’s “delivery of duties and service”; the Met said the “vast majority” of the complaints related to low-level conduct. We are supposed to trust the police: they are meant to be figures of safety, not ones of danger.

The Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, said: “All police forces across the country have been told to check all of their serving officers and staff against national police databases to identify and root out anyone who shouldn’t be serving”.

The current guidelines for checking police applicants were set in 2006. The process requires background checks that look at, for example, past convictions, behaviour of family and friends, or financial problems. In 2019, Her Majesty’s Inspectorate for Constabulary, Fire and Rescue Services gave all forces in England, Wales and Northern Ireland July 2020 as a -

- deadline to retrospectively vet all of their offices and staff to the 2006 guidelines.

In 2021, the BBC’s File on Four programme revealed that a quarter of forces had not met the deadline. In 2023, the Home Office has still not revealed how many background checks are missing.

Setting the deadline for old police officers to be vetted was good but diminished by the fact that they have not been completed. We do not know how many police officers have not been checked, meaning we do not know how many officers could have allegations against them. Also, surely these checks should have been done as soon as the new process was set in 2006?

The Met has an issue with corruption that needs to be fixed. The Met, and the government, need to prioritise people’s safety, and focus on changing the environment of the UK’s police forces to remove the corruption because trust in the police has been lost.