By Gabriel Princewill-
The Mayor Of London, Sadiq Khan, has today has expressed support for the Police Commissioner’s call for the Home Secretary to reform regulations governing misconduct in the police force, following the horrifying admission of a former cop to committing serial offences of rape.
Mr Khan(pictured) said he was appalled by the sexual offences committed by former cop, David Carrick., which has horrified the British public and heaped embarrassment on the police force- one heightened by the revelation of an abysmal level of failure to throw the offending beast out of the force.
The Eye Of Media.Com has been in contact with both The Mayor’s Office, The IOPC, and The Home Secretary’s office over the past months, calling for an urgent reformation of the British Police Force in light of several scandals of misconduct by police officers given the perpetual commission of misconduct and offences very year that brings their profession to disrepute.
The internal tribunal process conventionally undertaken by the fore in addressing police misconduct is often too protracted, sometimes taking years, and in many cases allowing guilty officers from leaving the force before being officially disciplined.
The IOPC plays a regulatory role in examining misconduct, but is not fully effective in ensuring the scale of dismissals required to ensure fairness and maintain public confidence in the system. The organisation is not as powerful in raising issues for reform as The Mayor Of London, but neither has so far been successful in shaking the police force to the degree that forces the requisite level of reform in the Met all these years.
The Mayor’s office has routinely expressed an appreciation of the concerns we have expressed over the months, and have often produced generic statements to demonstrate the efforts taken by the Mayor to effect change in the force. Yet, not enough pragmatic steps have been taken to effect change in the ailing police force in the Uk.
Sadiq Khan has faced adversity is his quest to ensure accountability in the police force.
He was formally summonsed before The London Assembly last September, becoming the first sitting mayor to be compelled to face the committee under legislation available to it.
The move was prompted by a damning report into the resignation of Dame Cressida in February, in which it’s authour, Sir Tom Winsor, concluded that Mr Khan urged her to break the law by sacking all the police officers involved in the Charing Cross racism scandal in order to protect his own political fortunes.
Sir Tom concluded that Dame Cressida was in effect “constructively dismissed” by the Mayor, who was also accused of “intimidating” her during her final weeks in the job. He found Mr Khan had not followed due process and had left her with “no option” but to step down.
The former chief inspector of constabulary in a 116 page report accused the Mayor of encouraging the commissioner to go beyond her legal powers and dismiss a group of Met officers accused of exchanging racist, misogynistic and homophobic WhatsApp messages.
The challenge against The Mayor was surprising because every one of those officers indeed deserved to be sacked, and in fact brought before a court of law for the commission of a hate crime- a proper outcome which never occurred.
Winsor’s report, published in August, concluded that the Mayor had put unfair pressure on the Commissioner, intimidating her into resigning in breach of the statutory procedure set out in the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011.
Ludicrously, Sir Winsor said his report was not aimed at assessing the merits of Cressica Dick’s performance or that of the Metropolitan police, but rather was one of process, not substance. It was directed at ascertaining whether due process was followed and the rule of law observed with regards the remit of The Mayor of London and the limitations of his powers in appointing another Home Secretary.
While observing protocol is an integral aspect of every democratic society, it is not always expedient to succumb to the bureaucratic processes of convention at the expense of public safety. Safety must sometimes be given precedence over conventional processes to achieve the wider and most consequential objectives of the rule of law.
Scant attention, if any, was given in Mr Winsor’s report to the urgent need to have a strong responsible leader of the police force, who has the wherewithal to appropriate the necessary reforms to root of the wolves in a force meant to protect the public.
A police force that repeatedly produces killers and sexual predators that destroy the lives of women and subject minorities to unwarranted and unlawful prejudice calls for urgent change.
Yet, the summoning of Mr Khan, who was trying to take radical action against unacceptable misconduct in the police force could itself have been deemed to amount to intimidation.
Revelation that serious complaints about PC Derrek Carrick had come to the attention of the force on nine previous occasions which no action taken, itself confirms the urgent need for reform in the police force, which desperately needs public confidence because of the seriousness and importance of its role in enforcing the law and protecting society.
Successive Home Secretaries have woefully failed to address the the prevalence of corrupt conduct in the police force, thereby calling for an urgent overhaul of its regulatory system.
Offending police officers make mockery of the noble efforts of upright officers who are committed to their profession and do not deserve to have their image tarnished by the atrocious conducts of a relatively small minority of unsavoury officers.
Khan’s office released a statement to this publication today that stated:
“I am absolutely sickened and appalled by the truly abhorrent offences that David Carrick has committed.
“Londoners will be rightly shocked that this man was able to work for the Met for so long and serious questions must be answered about how he was able to abuse his position as an officer in this horrendous manner.
“I remain in close contact with the new Met Commissioner about this case and the work to reform the culture and standards of the Met has already started with Baroness Louise Casey’s interim review now complete and a new, anonymous police complaints hotline and anti-corruption team recently established by Sir Mark Rowley. But more can and must be done – including acting on the findings of the forthcoming Angiolini Inquiry – and I will continue to hold the Met to account as they work to implement the reforms needed.
“It’s vital that all victims of crime have confidence in our police, and we simply must do more to raise standards and empower police leaders to rid the Met and all other police services of those officers who are clearly unfit to serve.
“I fully support the Commissioner’s calls for the Home Secretary to urgently reform police regulations governing misconduct to help raise standards in the police. This is long overdue and I urge the Government to conclude their ongoing review of police dismissals quickly to ensure that the system is changed so it’s more effective in removing officers whose behaviour is demonstrably criminal or whose actions fall well short of the standards expected by policing and the public.”
It is indeed long overdue, and it should not have to take another appalling case of police criminality to redress the dreadful state of affairs in the police force.
The Home Secretary must act now to achieve the reform necessary to revolutionise the sorry state of the Met police.