Police are still making “dreadful” decisions about who they let into their ranks, a watchdog said on Thursday as it warned that the Met will miss some key targets for purging rogue officers and stopping others joining.
HM Inspectorate of Constabulary, Fire and Rescue Services said it had uncovered new “you cannot be serious, you are really letting that person in?” cases of unsuitable people being recruited during a inspection of forces including the Met.
It said the examples included a recruit with “a history of allegations of domestic abuse against several partners”, another who had faced a criminal charge for dishonesty, and others wrongly given vetting clearance despite having family members jailed for drug dealing in one case and serious sexual offending in another.
Another case of wrongful recruitment involved a person recruiting to a police staff job licensing firearms despite having links to organised crime which they had sought to conceal. The watchdog added that other “dreadful mistakes” were still occurring over vetting decisions.
“Some decisions.. we just didn’t see how they made them. You just look at it and think really, still, after all the fuss that’s been made about this,” said Matt Parr, the inspector of constabulary who produced the findings, which were unveiled in a letter to the Home Secretary on Thursday.
Mr Parr said that although he was not identifying new vetting failures at individual forces, the Met had “well documented problems with the size of the vetting unit, the work it’s got on at the moment”.
He added that Londoners should also “brace ourselves that as the Met goes through its clean-up process there are going to be more bad news stories before they start getting better” although he insisted that this should be seen as “a sign of progress rather than a sign of how deeply mired it is.
Thursday’s warning about the continuing problems in police vetting came as the policing inspectorate delivered an update on how forces have responded to a damning report it published last year which warned that it was too easy for the wrong people to join and stay in the police.
In the progress report, the inspectorate says that 73 per cent of the nine recommendations made to each force on how to improve checks have either already been implemented or will be by the time the relevant deadline for each target is reached.
It says that 90 per cent of the accompanying 19 recommendations for each force on strengthening counter-corruption and misconduct proceedings will also be achieved, or have been.
But it warns that although the Met has already implemented the majority of the changes required, it is on course to miss some of the targets, giving the force a red alert over the relevant failures.
That verdict will be a blow to the force, which is still reeling from being labelled institutionally racist, misogynist and homophobic in a damning report by Baroness Casey and a series of scandals, including the murder of Sarah Everard by serving officer Wayne Couzens and David Carrick being unmasked as one of the UK’s most prolific sex offenders.
It comes despite the efforts of Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley to root out rogue officers.
Sir Mark has admitted that hundreds of officers who should not be employed are within the Met’s ranks and spoken repeatedly since his arrival at Scotland Yard of his determination to address the problem.
But Mr Parr said on Thursday that forces, including the Met, that he had checked over recent months were still making some serious errors in vetting decision which mirrored those uncovered in his previous report into such problems last year.
“We had in that report some dreadful, you cannot be serious you are really letting those person in, [cases] and we still found a few of those,” he told the Standard. “Ultimately it’s about individuals making decisions about do we let this person in or not.
“An applicant for a police staff firearms licensing role was found to be associated with an organised crime group. He didn’t disclose it, the force said it conducted a vetting interview, but we couldn’t find any record that they had, so they gave him clearance, employed him, no evidence that they had thought about the risks. These things are still happening.
“Mistakes are still coming through. There are still some decisions that we just didn’t see how they made them. You just look at it and think really, still, after all the fuss that’s been made about this.”
Mr Parr that he was unable to say that the Met would ever be clear of rogue officers or staff because of the size of the force and that further “bad news” would be forthcoming over the coming months because of the purge being carried out by Sir Mark Rowley.
“We have to brace ourselves that as the Met goes through its clean up process there are going to be more bad news stories before they start getting better. I would encourage people to see that as a sign of progress rather than a sign of how deeply mired it is. For reputation, public trust and recruiting none of that helps but it’s something they have just got to do.”
Thursday’s warning about the continuing problems with vetting follows a damning report by the policing inspectorate last November which concluded that it was “too easy for the wrong people to join and stay in the police”.
It highlighted cases of officers with criminal convictions and links to organised crime being wrongly recruited and expressed further concern about officers being allowed to transfer between forces despite a history troubling intelligence, complaints or misconduct allegations.
The report also found that “a culture of misogyny, sexism and predatory behaviour towards female police officers and staff and members of the public still exists and is even prevalent in many forces” and that the Met was among the forces infected by such attitudes.
