A shocking review reveals how Britain’s largest police force’s diversity panel overturned vetting refusals, leading to rogue officers committing heinous crimes.
A review has found that a diversity panel at the Metropolitan Police, Britain’s biggest police force, overturned vetting refusals, which led to rogue officers and staff committing rapes, assaults, and drug offences. The panel was introduced in 2019 after the force noticed that applicants who were refused entry were disproportionately from ethnic minority backgrounds and under-represented groups, reports The Times.
The panel reviewed 505 cases of applicants who had failed the vetting process and overturned 114 refusal notices. Shockingly, more than one in five of those officers — 25 in total — went on to commit misconduct and criminal offences.
According to the report, one of the most shocking cases was that of Cliff Mitchell, 26, a Met PC who was convicted of 13 rapes against two victims, one of whom was a child. Senior officers said he should never have been hired after he failed vetting. Despite being arrested in 2017 and having his application blocked in 2020, the vetting panel later overturned the decision, and he began his training in August 2021. The vetting panel has since been disbanded.
The review into historical vetting and hiring practices between 2013 and 2023, published on Thursday, found Scotland Yard “deviated” from standard practices and failed to check thousands of references. Officials also cut corners in vetting amid a national drive to recruit more than 4,500 officers and staff between July 2019 and March 2023.
The Metropolitan Police were contacted via email for comment.
Rise in serious violence and terror offences led to shortcuts in vetting
A rise in serious violence and terror offences meant the force took shortcuts as it scrambled to boost the number of firearms officers. Senior officers also cited a shortage of frontline officers as the capital dealt with a surge in serious violence and the Covid pandemic.
At least 5,073 officers and staff were not properly vetted. Of this number, 4,528 had no Special Branch vetting checks, 431 had no Ministry of Defence checks, and 114 had a vetting refusal overturned by a Met internal panel. Another 3,338 who were due for vetting renewal had only limited checks.
The report concluded that some deviations led to individuals being kept on who contributed to “police perpetrated harm” and damaged the trust of the public. Senior police staff who signed off decisions to dispense with reference checks and vetting are still in post, the force confirmed. No individual has been held personally accountable.
Rachel Williams, a Met assistant commissioner, said: “A number of individual decisions were made over ten years … this is a compound effect of a series of decision makings, which has widened the level of risk. There is no single decision that [we can say] caused this issue.” The Met said it was possible that about 1,450 recruits might have had their vetting refused and failed pre-employment reference checks.
The Met said 17,355 officers and staff did not have their references properly checked (Image: AFP/Getty)
Met estimates 250 would not have got job if references checked
Williams said: “We found that some historical practices did not meet the strengthened hiring and vetting standards we have today. We identified these issues ourselves and have fixed them quickly while making sure any risk to the public has been properly and effectively managed. It is important to highlight that the Met recruits hundreds of officers and staff every year — the overwhelming majority [are] of exemplary character who are dedicated to protecting the public.”
The Met said 17,355 officers and staff did not have their references properly checked, if at all, between 2018 and April 2022. The force estimates that about 250 would not have got a job if their references had been checked.
The Met said it had seen evidence that at least five other forces in England and Wales did not take references during the Police Uplift Programme (PUP). The report said the joint Home Office, National Police Chiefs’ Council and the College of Policing PUP delivery team were aware of this.
