The Met Police employed more than 1,000 officers without checking their references before they started on the force.
The new recruits are said to have been employed after the 2021 rape, kidnap and murder of Sarah Everard by Wayne Couzens, an officer in the Metropolitan Police’s elite parliamentary and diplomatic protection squad.
It comes despite a promise from Sir Mark Rowley, the Met commissioner, to root out rotten officers following the major scandal that dropped Britain’s jaw.
Despite official guidance from the College of Policing, Clare Davies, the Met’s human resources chief, decided in early 2020 to waive reference checks or seek them retrospectively.
She was subsequently promoted by Rowley and is now paid more than £235,000 a year.
Before being employed, the recruits would have been vetted to check for red flags, such as prior convictions or family connections to criminality.
Official guidelines also required forces to obtain character references from previous employers or educational institutions going back three years.
According to police sources, references were frequently never followed up on, even though some were acquired after a new hire joined the Met.
‘Once they were in, that was it; the reference checks were swept under the carpet,’ one official said.
It came at a time when Boris Johnson’s government wanted forces across the nation to recruit 20,000 additional officers over three years.
The Met was under pressure to employ more than 4,500 new recruits, but only managed to sign up 3,468.
Couzens, the discredited former officer, now 54, had been able to go on undetected at the Met for years due to failures in vetting that didn’t flag he had a history of sexual offending dating back to as far as 2015.
A separate review into the Met’s culture and norms by Baroness Casey in 2023 described the force as institutionally racist, misogynistic and homophobic.
There were more monsters in the Metropolitan police besides Couzens.
Reprobate rapist Cliff Mitchell, an ex-Met police officer, carried out more than 50 sex attacks against two female victims – one of them a child – between 2014 and 2023.
He was found guilty of 10 counts of rape, three counts of rape of a child under 13, one count of kidnap and breach of a non-molestation order.
The 24-year-old was jailed for life with a minimum term of 13 years and 225 days at Croydon Crown Court in May 2024.
David Carrick, 49, is currently serving a life sentence after he was convicted of 85 offences, including 48 rapes against a dozen women.
He was a Met officer for 20 years until his detention in 2021. Yet from 2009 he served in the Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Unit, which requires one of the highest security clearances for a police officer.
According to Met Commissioner Sir Rowley, a plan is in place to guarantee vetting evaluations of active officers who might have been charged with sexual misconduct or exhibiting other negative patterns of behaviour.
The High Court, however, decided earlier this month that it was illegal to fire Lino Di Maria, a sergeant whose warrant card was revoked after he failed vetting.
Mr. Di Maria denies all of the charges against him, including rape, sexual assault, indecent exposure, and domestic abuse.
Sir Rowley described the ruling as leaving policing in ‘a hopeless position’.
He said: ‘We now have no mechanism to rid the Met of officers who are not fit to hold vetting [clearance] — those who cannot be trusted to work with women or enter the homes of vulnerable people. It is absurd that we cannot lawfully sack them.’
In response to the failure of satisfactory reference checks, he added: ‘Londoners rightly expect the highest standards from our officers and staff, and we’ve overhauled our vetting and professional standards processes as part of our ‘New Met for London’ plan.
‘We are continuing to strengthen our approach, taking account of learning from inquiries by Baroness Casey and Dame Elish Angiolini. We have recruited extra vetting officers, introduced a new force policy and decision-making framework, and invested in new technology to make sure only those with the highest standards serve in the Met.’
Over thirty years ago, vetting was a significant part of the process and rightly so. It just goes to show how frantic they are to keep police numbers up at the risk and safety of the public. All references, vetting, credit checks, full employment history et cetera should be completed even before they progress onto the next phase, and reviews should be done at least every five years if not more frequently.
The police should be recruiting the best people to be police officers. They should not be selecting diverse, obese, small people and box tickers. We need the best possible people to protect us and to keep the streets safe.
Each day just keeps on giving me more affirmation that nothing is right with this country especially when references are not being checked for those who are supposed to uphold the law.
Yes! Politicians don’t care, managers don’t manage, councillors don’t council, and police don’t police.
There should also be compulsory drug testing and any prohibited substances in their system, they are sacked and lose their pension – that might prevent them passing around the crack pipe in cabinet meetings.
This is gross negligence and ineptitude. It’s no surprise police forces are in such a state. They’re being led by high-ranking officers promoted way above their pay scale and ability.
Standards have declined over the years. The Lemming police force has dropped off a cliff, and the public has been robbed of their hard-earned taxpaying money.
It appears that the Met do as they please until they are exposed, at which point they either cover it up or provide a pathetic apology and just continue. They appear to be under protection, but from whom?
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 