‘Dereliction of duty’: Met Police relaxed vetting to meet recruitment targets
Thousands of officers and staff were hired or retained without proper checks, with more than 130 going on to commit misconduct or crimes.
Serial rapists David Carrick and Cliff Mitchell were among more than 130 Metropolitan Police officers and staff wrongly hired or allowed to keep working as vetting was relaxed in a recruitment drive, a review has found.
Thousands of recruits joined the force without undergoing proper checks as bosses abandoned national guidelines amid efforts to meet the Tory government’s policy to recruit 20,000 officers in England and Wales.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood called the failings “a dereliction of the Met’s duty to keep London safe” as she ordered the police inspectorate to carry out an urgent independent probe.
Mitchell, 26, who was given a life sentence in 2024 for attacks on two victims over nine years, was initially rejected from the force because of a previous allegation of child rape.
David Carrick and Cliff Mitchell. Pics: PA
Pic: PA
But a vetting panel, aimed at reducing disproportionality towards ethnic minority groups, overturned the decision and he joined the force in August 2020.
Carrick, 51, who is one of the UK’s worst ever sex offenders, had joined the Met in 2001 but a re-vetting error in 2017 meant he was allowed to work as an armed officer until he was arrested in 2021. He is serving 37 life sentences.
Pic: PA
They are among 131 officers and staff known to have committed crimes or misconduct after not being properly vetted in the decade to April 2023.
This includes serious sexual offences, racism, drugs misuse, driving offences, affray, or working while intoxicated.
But an internal review published on Thursday says an estimated 1,200 out of the 27,300 applicants to the Met in the period may have had their vetting refused had it been done properly.
An estimated 250 people may have been found unsuitable to join the force among 17,355 who may not have had references taken between 2018 and April 2022.
The now scrapped vetting panel also overturned the rejection of at least 114 people out of 505 of the cases reviewed, with 25 of them, including Mitchell, going on to commit misconduct or be accused of a crime.
The review focused on the period immediately before and during the police recruitment drive from January 2018 to the end of March 2023.
Met blames ‘political interventions’
Britain’s largest police force blamed pressures to recruit 4,557 extra officers, “heightened by political interventions and adverse financial consequences” for deviating from Authorised Professional Practice over the period.
This included the automatic transfer of vetting from other police forces into the Met.
The review found 5,100 recruits were subject to limited vetting, such as not being checked against Special Branch or MoD indices, along with 3,338 serving officers and staff due for vetting renewal.
Mark Rowley has led the force for the past three years. Pic: PA
‘Not all cops are bad’
The Met says it has taken action to clean up the workforce and tighten vetting standards, with around 1,500 officers sacked since Met Commissioner Mark Rowley took over the force in September 2022.
Just eight serving officers or staff members from the thousands affected are still said to be of “concern”.
Assistant Commissioner Rachel Williams said: “The vast majority run towards danger on a daily basis and their integrity is not in question.
“Don’t think all our officers and staff are bad people.”
The Home Office has ordered the Inspector of Constabulary to look at how the systematic failures within the Met were allowed to happen and assess whether other forces across England and Wales may have deviated from vetting standards.
Ms 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.”
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