More than 130 Metropolitan Police officers and staff, including two convicted serial rapists, committed offenses or misconduct because of significant failings in the force’s vetting processes, a review has found.
David Carrick, one of Britain’s most prolific sex offenders, who received 37 life sentences, was inadequately vetted in 2017.
Checks failed to turn up an allegation of domestic abuse against him.
Cliff Mitchell, who carried out a ‘campaign of rape’ on two victims over nine years, has been allowed to join the force in 2020.
A review board, intended in part to improve diversity, overturned an initial rejection despite an earlier allegation that he raped a child.
The findings highlight systemic vetting failures within Britain’s biggest police force.
The 131 cases were revealed as part of a verification analysis which looked at the 10 years to the end of March 2023.
Other serious offenses committed by officers and staff include drug use, racism, violence and affray.
The review published on Thursday found that thousands of police officers and staff were not properly vetted amid pressure during a national recruitment drive from July 2019 to March 2023.
Cliff Mitchell, who carried out a ‘campaign of rape’ on two victims over nine years, allowed to join force in 2020 (Metropolitan Police)
Senior Met officers chose to flout national rules amid a scramble to find 4,557 recruits over a three-and-a-half-year period.
Deviations from standard practice meant thousands of references were not checked and shortcuts in checking led to the recruitment and retention of officers and staff who should not have been in the force and contributed to police injuries and damaged public trust, it said.
Under the Police Uplift Program (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, and funding was limited and therefore lost if targets were not met.
The report found: “The assessment identifies a number of decisions, some of which were taken in isolation, that combined to inadvertently increase risk.”
In total, 5,073 officers and staff were not properly vetted, of which 4,528 did not have special branch vetting, 431 did not have Ministry of Defense (MoD) vetting and 114 had a vetting refusal overturned by an internal Met panel.
Another 3,338 due for verification renewal had only limited checks.
The Met estimates that around 1,200 people who joined the force could have been refused under normal practice, out of around 27,300 applications.
Separately, 17,355 officers and staff did not have their references properly checked, if at all, between 2018 and April 2022.
The Met has not checked each of these files, but estimates that around 250 would not have got a job if their references had been checked.
The 131 cases were revealed as part of a verification analysis which looked at the 10 years to the end of March 2023 (PA)
Some of the “wrongdoing” in vetting practices led to the retention of people who contributed to “police harm” and damaged public trust, the report said.
The “deviations” identified included:
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Automatic transfer of officers from other forces without renewing their current check
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Non-verification of ex-service personnel with Ministry of Defense records between at least May 2020 and September 2021
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No research against special branch or counter-terrorism indices between at least May 2020 and October 2020
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Acceptance of prior authorization for former employees who have left MET for up to one year
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Reduced checks for officer and staff renewals, including a time when the vetting unit only looked at the police’s national computer instead of a full vetting review
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Around April 2019, some new officer recruits joined the force before receiving national security clearance.
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Internal processes have been accelerated so that many staff security controls on Met special constables and internal staff have been removed
The report also found that a since-disbanded vetting panel, which aimed to address disproportionality in the workforce, overturned decisions to deny vetting of 114 officers and staff, 25 of whom had committed misconduct or been charged with a crime.
The review said senior officers faced political pressure and had to meet recruitment targets or lose funding to other forces.
Since current Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley took office in September 2022, 1,500 officers have been made redundant in what has been seen as a bid to clean up the force. He was also a senior Met officer between 2011 and 2018.
The report said that out of 730 vetting cases reviewed, 39 officers and staff had to be vetted again and 23 were removed.
Commissioner Mark Rowley has tried to clean up the force since taking on the role in September 2022 (AP)
One officer has resigned, another has been dismissed for other reasons, six cases are ongoing and eight have been referred for possible dismissal.
The report concluded: “There were deviations from policy and practice, overconfidence in the ability to recruit at scale and a lack of resources in screening for increased risk.
“It is extremely difficult to establish a chain of causation between system changes and potential harm to the public and other members of the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS).
“However, the extent and impact of these misconducts is known to have ranged from some tolerable and minor in nature to those having a more substantial impact, including the likely recruitment and retention of individuals who have gone on to cause harm through crime and misconduct – events which have undermined public confidence in the MPS.”
The Met says it has taken steps to clean up its workforce and tighten vetting standards.
Deputy Commissioner Rachel Williams said: “By publishing this report today, we are being open and transparent about past vetting and recruitment practices which in some cases led to the wrong people being signed up to the Met.
“We have been honest with Londoners many times about previous failings in our approach to professional standards. This review is part of our ongoing work to demand the highest standards in the Met so that the public can have confidence and trust in our officers.
“We discovered that some historical practices did not meet the robust hiring and vetting standards we have today. We identified these issues ourselves and quickly addressed them, while ensuring that any risk to the public was managed properly and effectively.”
“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, president of the Metropolitan Police Federation, said: “Today’s report illustrates a farcical situation where reaching a target number of recruits took 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 unfit to serve should not be in the police service.