‘Shocking’: Police with violence and harassment convictions still serving in UK forces – UK Times

Police with convictions for violence, harassment and assault are still serving in UK forces, despite repeated pledges to crack down on rogue officers, The Independent can reveal.

In the aftermath of the latest damning inquiry into Sarah Everard’s death at the hands of a serving Met Police officer, which found vetting recommendations have still not been fully implemented, new figures show that at least 49 serving police officers have kept their jobs despite being convicted of crimes since 2018.

Among the convictions that did not result in dismissal were several for serious offences, including harassment, assault by beating and dangerous driving, according to freedom of information figures from 27 of the 43 police forces in England and Wales.

One police officer in Cumbria, who was given a final written warning after committing domestic common assault in 2018, has since resigned.

Shadow policing minister Tom Vickers told The Independent that “trust was damaged” when officers with criminal convictions remained in post without proper scrutiny, while the former Victims’ Commissioner, Dame Vera Baird, said it was “shocking” that police chiefs “think it’s OK to send an abuser out” to respond to victims of crime.

Among the serving officers who escaped dismissal and instead were handed final written warnings are:

The cases are mostly from before 2021, when police forces faced uproar, prompting demands they tighten up on standards after the death of Ms Everard, who was kidnapped and murdered by Met Officer Wayne Couzens. But many campaigners say forces still have not gone far enough to vet serving police officers.

The Independent previously revealed that police sexual offence convictions had surged since Ms Everard’s death.

Home secretary Shabana Mahmood has announced new laws to impose mandatory vetting standards for all forces, following repeated failures to weed out rogue officers, including David Carrick, one of the UK’s most prolific sex offenders, who received 37 life sentences, and was improperly vetted in 2017.

Dame Vera Baird, a former victims’ commissioner, said the officers convicted of serious offences “obviously should not be in the police force”, describing Cumbria Police’s decision to issue a final written warning to an officer convicted of domestic assault as “shocking”.

She said: “Some of these events are quite serious and the domestic abuse one means that somebody who’s an abuser himself could be going out to calls on domestic abuse from frightened women, vulnerable and looking, on the contrary, for support.

“I found it shocking that the police hierarchy thinks it’s OK to send an abuser out to such women.”

Despite updated vetting guidance from the College of Policing, which states there should be a “rebuttable presumption” that a person with a conviction for violence or targeting vulnerable people should not be cleared to work, Mr Vickers told The Independent that more needed to be done to uphold public confidence.

“The public expects police officers to be held to the highest standards, and that trust is damaged when officers with criminal convictions remain in post without proper scrutiny,” he said.

“Although these convictions are historic, that does not mean they should be ignored. Serious offences, including violence and domestic abuse, go directly to an officer’s suitability to hold the powers and authority of the state.”

He added that forces should be required to review previous cases through vetting and misconduct processes. He said: “Maintaining public confidence depends on consistent standards and clear accountability. Where officers fall short of those standards, action must follow.”

The National Police Chiefs’ Council would not comment on the individual cases, but said they mainly took place some time ago and that police vetting and regulations had since undergone significant improvements. The body said any officer convicted would undergo a fresh vetting review.

But Met Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley warned last February that police chiefs were unable to sack rogue officers after a sergeant won a legal challenge after his vetting was revoked over unproven complaints about his conduct, including rape and sexual assault. The Met has since appealed the ruling.

New regulations in force since May have made holding vetting a legal requirement for all serving officers, with those who fail vetting automatically dismissed. The College of Policing’s guidance on misconduct hearing outcomes states that it is unacceptable for police officers responsible for enforcing the law to break the law themselves.

As well as the serious offences highlighted, the data obtained from forces showed officers avoided dismissal for a range of other offences, including putting a person in fear of violence, breaching health protection regulations and criminal damage.

Traffic offences included speeding, using a mobile phone while driving and having no insurance.

Most of the police officers – 44 out of the 49 – are men.

A Home Office spokesperson said “significant reforms” had been brought in to strengthen the police misconduct system, including serious offences automatically amounting to gross misconduct, and the ability to sack officers who fail their vetting.

They added: “Further reforms next year will strengthen the requirements on forces to suspend officers who are investigated for violence against women and girls offences and seek to exclude individuals who have committed these offences from joining the police in the first place.”

GMP said the case of common assault, when the officer kept his job, occurred before the current Chief Constable Sir Stephen Watson took charge in 2021. Chief Constable Watson said since his arrival, there had been 156 dismissals, many, he said, overseen by himself.

“GMP is determined to set the highest standards in policing because that is what the public and the overwhelming majority of our workforce rightly expects and deserves,” he said.

“We will not shy away from rooting out wrongdoing, wherever it exists, because the greater good of the public must always come first. We are ridding the force of those not fit to serve alongside the vast majority of GMP officers and staff who embody all that the public rightly expect of them.”

The Met Police said rules had been tightened on dismissing officers who fall short of the standards expected last year, adding that if an officer was not dismissed at a gross misconduct hearing, the case would automatically be reviewed.

Surrey Police said its serving officer convicted of assault by beating in 2018 was involved in an incident in London when he was on a night out, and it was not a domestic-related matter. The officer was found to have breached standards in discreditable conduct.

He was given a community order for 60 hours’ unpaid work and ordered to pay £250 in compensation. His final written warning has since expired.