Failures in vetting at Britain’s largest police force allowed more than 130 officers and staff, including two serial rapists, to commit crimes or misconduct, a review has revealed.
David Carrick, one of the UK’s worst sex offenders, and Cliff Mitchell, who carried out a ‘campaign of rape’ on two victims over nine years, were among Metropolitan Police officers who were not properly checked.
Carrick, who was given 37 life sentences for his crimes, was not properly vetted in 2017, with checks failing to reveal an allegation of domestic abuse against him.
In 2020, Mitchell was allowed to join the force after a vetting panel overturned a decision to reject him from the police, despite a previous accusation of raping a child.
Nahar Choudhury, Chief Executive of Solace, London’s largest domestic abuse & sexual violence charity, said: ‘Adequate vetting of officers is the bare minimum that can be expected of the Met police and yet again this institution has failed, leaving women to pay the price.
‘The fact that David Carrick and Cliff Mitchell were placed in positions of power that enabled them to rape women shows that while individuals choose to carry out sexual violence, the Met has systemically enabled them to do so.
‘The reasons for survivors of sexual violence and domestic abuse not to approach the police are stacking up: while the ongoing work to improve standards within the Met is welcome, we need greater reassurance and transparency about what, in fact, is going to change.’
The 131 cases were revealed as part of a vetting review that looked at the ten years up to the end of March 2023.
Other serious crimes committed by the officers and staff include drug use, racism, violence and affray.
Amid pressure during a recruitment drive from July 2019 to March 2023, thousands of police officers and staff were not properly checked, the review published today found.
Facing pressure to recruit 4,557 officers in three and a half years, senior Met officers chose not to follow national guidelines.
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The deviations from standard practice meant thousands of references were not checked.
The review said shortcuts in vetting led to the recruitment and retention of officers and staff who should not have been in the force, contributing to police-perpetrated harm and damaging public trust.
The Home Secretary ordered a watchdog to inspect the force’s vetting procedures in light of the report.
Home Secretary Shabana 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.’
His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services will also examine whether other forces in England and Wales deviated from national standards.
A report on vetting in 2022 that examined eight forces raised a series of concerns, including failure to check references and issues with vetting.
The Metropolitan Police, Kent Police, the Civil Nuclear Constabulary, Cumbria, South Wales, Nottinghamshire, Dorset and Devon and Cornwall were the eight forces inspected at the time.
Under the Police Uplift Programme (PUP), forces in England and Wales were expected to recruit 20,000 officers within three and a half years to replace those cut during austerity.
Funding was ringfenced and, therefore, lost if targets were not met by the forces.
In total, 5,073 officers and staff were not properly vetted, of whom 4,528 had no Special Branch vetting check, 431 had no Ministry of Defence (MoD) checks, and 114 had a vetting refusal overturned by a Met internal panel.
Another 3,338 who were due for a vetting renewal had only limited checks.
The Met has not checked each of these files, but estimates that, if their references had been checked, around 250 would not have got a job.
The 'deviations' identified
The ‘deviations’ identified by the review included:
- Automatically transferring officers from other forces without renewing their current vetting
- Not checking former service personnel against MoD records between at least May 2020 and September 2021
- No research against Special Branch or counter terrorism indices between at least May 2020 to October 2020
- Acceptance of past clearance for former employees who had left the Met for up to a year
- Reduced checks for officer and staff renewals, including a time when the vetting unit only looked on the police national computer instead of a full vetting review
- In around April 2019, some new officer recruits joined the force before receiving national security clearance
- Internal processes were sped up so that many personnel security checks on Met special constables and internal staff were removed
The report also found that a since-abolished vetting panel, which aimed to tackle disproportionality in the workforce, overturned decisions to refuse vetting 114 officers and staff.
Out of these 114, 25 of them went on to commit misconduct or have been accused of a crime.
The report said that out of 730 vetting cases reviewed, 39 officers and staff had to be re-checked, with 23 cleared.
One officer resigned, another was sacked for a different reason, six cases are ongoing, and eight have been referred to potentially face dismissal.
The report concluded: ‘There were deviations from policy and practice, overconfidence in the ability to recruit at scale and lack of resources in vetting increased risk.
‘It is extremely difficult to establish a causation chain between system changes and the potential harm caused to the public and other members of the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS).
‘However, it is known that the scale and impact of these deviations ranged, with some tolerable and minor in nature, to those having 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.’
The Met says it has taken action to clean up the workforce and tighten vetting standards.
Since current Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley took over the role in September 2022, 1,500 officers have been sacked in what has been billed as a bid to clean up the force.
Assistant Commissioner Rachel Williams said: ‘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.
‘We have been honest with Londoners on many occasions about previous shortcomings in our professional standards approach.
‘This review is part of our ongoing work to demand the highest standards across the Met so the public can have trust and confidence in our officers.
‘We found that some historical practices did not meet the strengthened hiring and vetting standards we have today.
‘We identified these issues ourselves and have fixed them quickly while making sure any risk to the public has been properly and effectively managed.
‘It is important to highlight that the Met recruits hundreds of officers and staff every year – the overwhelming majority of exemplary character who are dedicated to protecting the public.’
Paula Dodds, chairwoman of the Metropolitan Police Federation, said: ‘Today’s report illustrates a farcical situation in which hitting a numerical target of recruits has taken precedence over normal checks and balances.
‘The good, brave and hard-working colleagues we represent are the first to say that the small minority of officers who are not fit to serve should not be in the police service.’
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