Thousands of London police officers have been suspended or transferred in a year, Scotland Yard said on Tuesday, launching a major purge of its ranks after a series of scandals.
“It will take a year, two years or more to root out corrupt (police officers),” assistant deputy commissioner Stuart Cundy warned.
The “Met Police” or Metropolitan Police, the London police force with 34,000 members, has been in a serious crisis of confidence since crimes committed by police officers were uncovered.
In February, police officer David Carrick was sentenced to life in prison for dozens of rapes and sexual assaults on 12 women during his time as a police officer. Police missed nine opportunities to arrest this serial rapist who could have been active for 17 years.
In March 2021, 33-year-old Londoner Sarah Everard was raped and killed by a police officer. That agent, Wayne Couzens, was also sentenced to life in prison. The police were then accused of ignoring alarming signals about his behavior.
Beyond these high-profile cases, several reports have denounced racist, homophobic and misogynistic behavior within the police force, and many voices have called for reform.
In total, 201 police officers were suspended and around 860 reassigned last year, the Met said.
“If you put those two numbers together you get over 1,000 police officers, almost the size of a small police force elsewhere in the country. “That’s a significant number,” admitted Stuart Cundy. One in 34 agents was actually sanctioned.
In addition, 100 police officers were dismissed for serious misconduct in one year (66% more than in previous years), the Met Police said, without detailing the mistakes made.
And 275 are awaiting a hearing on serious misconduct charges, a significant proportion of which relate to allegations of violence against women (compared to 136 last year).
The number of reports from the public and officials about allegations of misconduct has doubled over the same period.