The Met police is under scrutiny once again
(Picture: Justin Tallis / AFP / Getty Images)PC David Carrick wielded his status as a police officer to silence his victims and get away with his abhorrent behaviour over two decades.
He has been sacked from the force after he admitted 49 charges against 12 women between 2003 and 2020, including 48 incidents of rape, subjecting women to violence and degradation, and controlling behaviour.
“I don’t know about you, but I’m starting to think there isn’t just ‘one bad apple’ in the force, as former commissioner Cressida Dick claimed after the murder of Sarah Everard,” Claire Cohen writes for the Standard.
The force’s new commissioner apparently has plans in place to “rapidly improve their vetting processes,” according to Home Secretary Suella Braverman. “But they must now deliver it,” she told the Standard, “and show evidence that it has worked to root out the rapists and sex offenders so people like this cannot remain part of our capital’s police force and can no longer slip through the net.”
However, Martin Bentham cautions whether that can be left to the Met alone: “The Government must also step up by making it easier for forces to sack officers. It’s intolerable that Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley, who has pledged to clean up the force, thinks there are police in his ranks who shouldn’t be there but can’t get rid of them under existing rules.”
Regardless of how it happens, change is essential. “The days of shame for the Met must be brought to an end,” the Standard writer adds.
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