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More than 130 Metropolitan Police officers and staff committed crimes or misconduct after the force failed to properly vet them during a national recruitment drive. The review, published on Thursday, found that 5,073 personnel were not properly vetted between July 2019 and March 2023. Among those who slipped through were two serial rapists, prompting the Home Secretary to order an immediate inspection of Britain's biggest police force.
David Carrick, a Met officer who received 37 life sentences, was not properly vetted in 2017. An allegation of domestic abuse against him was missed during the process. Cliff Mitchell joined the force in 2020 despite a previous accusation of raping a child. An internal vetting panel overturned his initial rejection.
The vetting failures occurred on a massive scale. The review found that 4,528 officers and staff received no Special Branch vetting checks, while 431 had no Ministry of Defence checks. An internal panel overturned vetting refusals for 114 people. Of those, 25 later committed misconduct or were accused of crime.
Senior Met officers opted not to meet national guidelines to rapidly recruit 4,557 personnel during the drive. References were not checked for 17,355 officers and staff between 2018 and April 2022. The report estimated that approximately 250 would have lost their jobs if proper reference checks had been conducted.
Pressure and shortcuts
The force made several deviations from standard practice. Officers transferring from other forces were automatically accepted without renewed vetting. No Ministry of Defence records checks were conducted for former service personnel between at least May 2020 and September 2021. Special Branch and counter-terrorism checks were skipped between May 2020 and October 2020.
The report stated: «The review identifies a series of decisions, some of which were taken in isolation, which all compounded together and inadvertently increased risk.» It added that while some deviations were minor, others had «a more substantive impact, including the recruitment and likely retention of individuals who have gone on to cause harm through criminality and misconduct – events that have undermined public confidence in the MPS.»
Government response
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood ordered His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services to inspect the Met's vetting procedures. The inspection will also examine whether other forces in England and Wales deviated from national standards.
Mahmood said: «Abandoning vetting checks on officers was a dereliction of the Met's duty to keep London safe. Londoners rightly expect officers to undergo robust checks so that the brightest and best – not criminals – are policing our streets. I have asked the Chief Inspector of Constabulary to carry out an inspection as I seek to restore trust in the force's ability to protect and serve the public.»
Cleanup efforts
Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley has overseen the sacking of 1,500 officers since taking over in September 2022. The force stated it has taken action to clean up the workforce and tighten vetting standards.
Assistant Commissioner Rachel Williams said on publishing the report: «In publishing this report today, we are being open and transparent about past vetting and recruitment practices that led, in some cases, to unsuitable people joining the Met.» She added that the force has fixed historical practices and is demanding the highest standards.
Paula Dodds, chairwoman of the Metropolitan Police Federation, criticized the prioritization of recruitment targets over proper vetting checks. She stated that unsuitable officers should not be in the police service.
The vetting failures occurred during the Public Uplift Programme, which required forces in England and Wales to recruit 20,000 officers within three and a half years. Senior officers faced political pressure to meet targets, with ringfenced funding lost if targets were not met.
Note: This article was created with Artificial Intelligence (AI).
