The number of Met officers currently suspended or on restricted duties amid a push to root out rogue officers is equivalent to “the size of a small police force”, Scotland Yard has admitted.
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Stuart Cundy told reporters that of the Met's workforce of about 34,000 officers, 201 were suspended and 860 were on restricted duties. "That’s 1 in every 34 officers," said ITV News's UK editor Paul Brand on Twitter, now known as X.
The London force said that 450 officers were under investigation for alleged sexual or domestic violence, and that 275 were already awaiting gross misconduct hearings. The former head of His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary, Zoe Billingham, told BBC Radio 4's "Today" programme that the newly revealed figures were "eye-watering".
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The crackdown follows the convictions of former officers David Carrick and Wayne Couzens, which triggered a "blistering review" by Baroness Casey earlier this year, said the BBC.
The review found that women and children had been failed by what Casey has described as a "boy's club" culture rife at the Met, and by racism, misogyny and homophobia at the heart of the force. In the past year, 100 officers have been sacked for gross misconduct – "a 66% increase on historical averages", said The Guardian.
Since the conviction of serial rapist Carrick, 1,600 cases spanning the past ten years have been identified where officers faced allegations of domestic or sexual violence but no action was taken.
Cundy has now outlined plans to hold about 30 misconduct hearings and 30 gross incompetence hearings each month. "This is going to take one, two or more years to root out those who are corrupt," he said.
The scale of the Met’s clean-up operation, said ITV's Brand on X, "underlines the crisis of trust in the force, especially for women, if it needed further emphasising".
Andy Cooke, head of His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary, warned earlier this year that “public trust in the police is hanging by a thread”.
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