Flawed research and failures by police leaders have allowed a “prevalent” culture of thousands of officers who are potentially “predatory” of women to join and stay in the ranks, a damning official report has concluded.
Officers staged unwarranted stops of women in an abuse of power known as “booty patrols”, with crimes such as sexual assault covered up and ignored, along with large-scale harassment of female officers and members of the public.
The report released on Wednesday by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Police, Fire and Rescue (HMICFRS) for England and Wales was ordered following the abduction, rape and murder of Sarah Everard in March 2021 by a Metropolitan Police officer in service, Wayne Couzens.
It details senior officers harassing women for sex, viewing service pornography and making misogynistic comments about crime victims and the public.
The report listed a decade of warnings to police chiefs after serious sexual assaults and abuses of power by serving officers, with the inspection finding that chiefs were “complacent” and failed to appreciate “the danger for the public”.
Officers were authorized to join after “committing crimes such as theft, indecent exposure, possession of controlled drugs, drunken driving and domestic violence-related assaults,” the report found.
It examined eight forces, including the Met and the civilian nuclear police, both forces where Couzens was an armed officer, as well as Kent, where he served as a special constable.
Chief Inspector Matt Parr said: “We came to the conclusion that a culture of misogyny, sexism, predatory behavior towards women and police staff and members of the public was prevalent across all the forces we inspected , which is a depressing finding.
“We believe the bad behavior towards women we were told about is common in many, if not all, forces.”
The inspection said: “We also found 131 cases where the [employment] the decision was questionable at best. In these, we found officers and staff with criminal records, or suspected of having committed crimes (including serious crimes), significant unpaid debts, or family members linked to organized crime.
“In other cases, officers and staff had given false or incomplete information to the verification unit. We also found officers who, despite a history of complaints or allegations of misconduct, were successfully transferred between police forces. This is totally unsatisfactory”.
This represents around 18% of the 725 verification files examined. All female police officers and staff members spoke of harassment and, in some cases, assault.
Pressed on the scale of troubled officers, Parr said: “It seems reasonable to me to say that over the last three or four years, the number of recruits about whom we would raise significant questions is certainly in the hundreds, if not thousands .”
The report cites examples found between 2018 and 2021, when bosses claimed research had improved. They include:
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A special agent was cleared to join despite a previous conviction for indecent exposure seven times over a two-week period as a young man, when he had masturbated in his bedroom window, coughing to attract the attention of a woman He also had a caution for threats to commit criminal damage.
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A support officer was cleared to join after slapping his partner.
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A police officer allowed an 80-year-old woman to break in and rob her, who fell to the ground and had her handbag stolen.
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A police officer was cleared to join despite concerns that he had a conviction for robbery and possible criminal links.
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A police officer arrested twice for assaults on women who were left with marks on their necks and witness intimidation, as well as having a history of drink-driving convictions.
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One officer was cleared to join despite a rape arrest as a youth some 20 years earlier.
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An officer, who still works with vulnerable people, received a final written warning for sending extremely explicit and racist messages to a female colleague.
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The investigation was found to have failed when officers switched forces and Parr said: “The lessons of the last few years have given a big warning.”
When asked if police had heeded warnings, such as those from women’s groups but also some from the inspectorate itself, that Couzens might have been identified earlier as a danger to women, Parr said: “The more sloppy your control system is, the more chance there is of someone like Couzens joining you.
The rapid recruitment drive to meet the government’s target of 20,000 new officers in three years also raised concerns about vetting standards, and in total the inspection has made 43 recommendations.
This report follows a month spent by Lady Casey in the Met’s disciplinary system which found shocking failures, corruption and cover-ups far greater than previously admitted. This led Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley to say that hundreds of racist, misogynistic and corrupt officers have been left alone in the ranks of his force.
The backlog of reports, with more due next year, threatens the reputation of police chiefs, who have said they took the problems seriously, but the inspectorate said they failed to act on warnings that their staff and citizens were in danger from misogynistic, racist and corrupt officers.
Police chiefs said they would adopt the recommendations in full and Andy Marsh, head of the College of Policing, said: “The inquiry will only provide a snapshot of the problem and must be supported by strong leadership at all levels and people which can detect and report non-policing behaviour.New entry training from the university and the National Police Leadership Center will deliver world-class leaders equipped with the skills to report wrongdoing, improve outcomes and drive service to the highest standard that the public can reasonably expect.”
Harriet Wistrich of the Center for Women’s Justice, which has pushed for stronger action on police misogyny, said: “A police officer has powers and status that, if misused, allow him taking advantage of vulnerable women – it is totally unacceptable that there are stricter interviewing and vetting procedures to ensure that potential abusers are not admitted to the police.