‘Prevalent’ predatory, misogynistic culture in
police, official report finds
Inspectorate uncovers widespread vetting failures with
officers cleared to join after committing serious crimes
The report found that officers were cleared to join
forces after ‘committing offences such as robbery, indecent exposure and
domestic abuse-related assaults’.
Vikram Dodd
Police and crime correspondent
Wed 2 Nov
2022 00.01 GMT
Defective
vetting and failures by police leaders have allowed a “prevalent” culture of
potentially thousands of officers who are “predatory” towards women to join and
stay in the ranks, a damning official report has concluded.
Officers
staged unwarranted stops of women in an abuse of power known as “booty
patrols”, with crimes such as sexual assault covered up and ignored along with
large-scale harassment of female officers and members of the public.
The report
published on Wednesday from His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire
& Rescue Services (HMICFRS) was ordered after the kidnap, rape and murder
of Sarah Everard in March 2021 by a serving Metropolitan police officer, Wayne
Couzens.
It details
senior officers pursuing women for sex, the watching of pornography on duty and
misogynistic comments about crime victims and the public.
The report
lists a decade of warnings to police chiefs after past serious sexual assaults
and abuses of power by serving officers, with the inspectorate finding that
chiefs were “complacent” and failed to appreciate “the danger to the public”.
Officers
were cleared to join after “committing offences such as robbery, indecent
exposure, possession of controlled drugs, drink-driving and domestic
abuse-related assaults”, the report found.
It examined
eight forces including the Met and the Civil Nuclear constabulary, the two
forces where Couzens was an armed officer, as well as Kent, where he served as
a special constable.
The lead
inspector, Matt Parr, said: “We concluded that a culture of misogyny, sexism,
predatory behaviour towards female police officers and staff and members of the
public was prevalent in all the forces we inspected, which is a depressing
finding.
“We believe
that the poor behaviour towards women we were told about is prevalent in many –
if not all – forces.”
The inspectorate
said: “We also found 131 cases where the [employment] decision was questionable
at best. In these, we found officers and staff with criminal records, or
suspicions that they had committed crime (including some serious crime),
substantial undischarged debt, or family members linked to organised crime.
“In other
cases, officers and staff had given false or incomplete information to the
vetting unit. We also found officers who, despite a history of attracting
complaints or allegations of misconduct, successfully transferred between
police forces. This is wholly unsatisfactory.”
That
amounts to about 18% of the 725 vetting files examined. Every female police
officer and staff member spoke to told of harassment and, in some cases,
assaults.
Pressed on
the scale of problem officers, Parr said: “It seems reasonable for me to say
that over the last three or four years, the number of people recruited over
whom we would raise significant questions is certainly in the hundreds if not
low thousands.”
The report
cites examples found between 2018 and 2021 – when chiefs claimed vetting had improved.
They include:
A special
constable cleared to join despite a past conviction for indecent exposure seven
times over a two-week period as a juvenile, when he had masturbated at his
bedroom window, coughing to attract the attention of a woman. He also had a
caution for threats to commit criminal damage.
A support
officer cleared to join after slapping his partner in the face.
A police
officer allowed to join despite robbing an 80-year-old woman, who was knocked
to the ground and had her handbag stolen.
A police
officer cleared to join despite concerns he had a theft conviction and
potential criminal links.
A police
officer arrested twice for assaults on women who were left with marks on their
necks, and witness intimidation, as well as having a historical drink-driving
conviction.
An officer
cleared to join despite an arrest for rape while a juvenile, about 20 years
earlier.
An officer,
who still works with vulnerable people, given a final written warning for
sending extremely sexually explicit and racist messages to a female colleague.
Vetting was
found to have failed when officers changed forces and Parr said: “The lessons
of the last few years have given ample warning.”
Asked if
policing had heeded the warnings, such as those from women’s groups but also
some from the inspectorate itself, that Couzens could have been identified
earlier as a danger to women, Parr said: “The shoddier your vetting system is,
the greater the chance of somebody like Couzens joining you.”
The rapid
recruitment to meet a government target of 20,000 new officers within three
years also heightened concerns over vetting standards and in total 43
recommendations have been made by the inspectorate.
This report
follows one last month by Lady Casey into the Met’s discipline system that
found shocking failures, corruption and cover-ups far greater than previously
admitted. It led the Met’s commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, to say that hundreds
of racist, women-hating and corrupt officers have been left in the ranks of his
force alone.
The
accumulation of reports, with more to come next year, threatens the reputation
of police leaders, who have claimed to have taken the issues seriously, but as
the inspectorate said, failed to act on warnings that their staff and the
public were in danger from misogynistic, racist and corrupt officers.
Police
chiefs said they would adopt the recommendations in full and Andy Marsh, head
of the College of Policing, said: “Vetting will only ever provide a snapshot of
the problem, and it must be backed up by strong leadership at all levels and
people who can spot and call out behaviour which does not belong in policing.
The college’s new entry training and National Centre for Police Leadership will
deliver world class leaders who are equipped with the skills to call out
wrongdoing, improve results and bring the service up to the highest standard
the public rightly expects.”
Harriet
Wistrich of the Centre for Women’s Justice, which has pressed for stronger
action over police misogyny, said: “A police officer has powers and status
which if misused can allow him to take advantage of vulnerable women – it is
utterly unacceptable that there isn’t the strictest interview and vetting
procedures to ensure that potential abusers are not admitted to the police.”
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