London police force says it will take years to remove officers accused of corruption and misconduct
London police force says it will take years to remove officers accused of corruption and misconduct
Hundreds of London police officers are facing dismissal as the department steps up efforts "to root out those who are corrupt" after a series of scandals eroded public trust and a scathing report found it was institutionally racist, homophobic and misogynistic.
That's way too long, but at least they're trying to clean up the corruption and brutality. Could we get some of that trying, stateside?
Hundreds of London police officers are facing dismissal as the department steps up efforts "to root out those who are corrupt" after a series of scandals eroded public trust and a scathing report found it was institutionally racist, homophobic and misogynistic.
The Metropolitan Police Service said Tuesday that more than 1,000 officers are currently suspended or on restricted duties. That means the public is likely to be bombarded with stories of police misconduct over the next few years as the department works through the backlog of cases and around 60 officers face disciplinary proceedings each month.
"This is going to take one, two or more years to root out those who are corrupt," Deputy Assistant Commissioner Stuart Cundy said as he updated reporters on efforts to reform the department. ...
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That's just the London police force as well. There was a national review of all working police officers records to check any complaints etc that had been made against them just to double check they'd been dealt with properly and not been made to disappear...
I think the Police round our way has already cleaned itself up after previous things. But the it's the fact it takes a scandal to make it happen that's the hard thing to take.
I'm guessing this is an American community though and so I shouldn't complain because I don't think ours are as bad as yours.
There was a national review of all working police officers records to check any complaints etc that had been made against them just to double check they’d been dealt with properly and not been made to disappear…
My head spins. Here in the America, I can't imagine even a local sheriff in a small county going back, doublechecking to be sure all complaints had been seriously looked into. The notion of doing that for all police officers in the country? Why, that's the kind of thing that might make people have confidence in cops.
Nothing like that has happened in the history of the USA. My head's still spinning.
Yeah it's because they found there'd been quite few officers all over the country who had been getting away with 'dodgy things' - read rape, coercive relationships, stalking, harassment etc' - to do with women for years. Wales was another particularly bad one I think but as per usual in the UK mainly the media care about London.
USA is a bigger country of course which means it's a bigger job - that said, each unit should be able to have one person same to spot check historical case files if there are concerns about an officer's behaviour. Need more whistleblowers in police forces. These guys can't be that well liked
Whistleblowers aren't allowed in America. Any cop blowing the whistle on bad cops gets fired. So by gawd yes it's a brilliant idea, let's do the doublecheck of complaints, but the doublecheckers can't be police employees or cronies.
Whistleblowers aren’t allowed in America. Any cop blowing the whistle on bad cops gets fired
Are you taking the piss? That's ridiculous! So if there is a bad apple cop, what do the good cops do?
We actually have anti-corruption units here, how effective they are I don't know but they're meant to 'watch the watchers' - a very popular series, 'Line Of Duty' was based on them if recommend it if you're interested in police corruption and it's available over there (I think series 4 or 5 was where it went downhill but before then it was really on the nose). Having a highly popular drama based around police corruption might have paved the way in the public consciousness for expecting the police to be having people like that in real life keeping on top of bent coppers.
So if there is a bad apple cop, what do the good cops do?
You've cut directly to the crux of the problem, here. American cops who report corruption or brutality to their supervisors tend to be quickly forced out. If they go to the courts or the media, the firing will be quicker. It's a bit of a problem.
I'm curious to see how it's handled elsewhere, so Line of Duty goes on my list, thanks.
It’s a bit of a problem.
That's terrible. I can imagine there'll be a few pretty depressed police out there