More than a thousand London police officers have been suspended or transferred in the past year following a series of scandals. Scotland Yard reports this. “We will need another year, two years or more, to root out the corrupt officers,” said Deputy Assistant Commissioner Stuart Cundy.
London’s 34,000-strong Metropolitan Police is facing a severe crisis of confidence following the revelation of a series of crimes by police officers.
For example, police officer David Carrick was sentenced to life in prison in February for dozens of rapes and sexual abuse of twelve women while he was a police officer. Police failed nine times to arrest the serial rapist on the job for 17 years.
In March 2021, London’s Sarah Everard was raped and murdered by police officer Wayne Couzens, who was sentenced to life in prison. Police were accused of ignoring red flags in his behaviour.
In addition to those two high-profile cases, several reports accuse racism, homophobia and misogyny within the police. There are, therefore calls for reforms from many quarters.
In the past year, 201 police officers have already been suspended and 860 transferred, the Met said. “That is almost the size of a small police force elsewhere in the country. That’s a big number,” Cundy said. One officer out of 34 was sanctioned.
Another 100 police officers were dismissed in a year of severe errors, 66 percent more than in previous years, Scotland Yard said, without giving details. Another 275 officers (up from 136 a year earlier) are awaiting a hearing for serious misconduct. For many of them, this concerns accusations of violence against women.
The number of reports of misconduct has also doubled in the past year.