Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood is set to order an independent special investigation into potential vetting failures at the Metropolitan Police.
The probe centres on roughly 300 officers recruited between 2016 and 2023 who may have joined Britain’s largest force without adequate background checks.
Concerns have emerged that these individuals could present a criminal threat, having potentially bypassed screening designed to identify applicants with convictions, cautions, or links to criminal activity.
The Home Secretary and her team have been receiving updates on the Met’s own preliminary findings throughout the review process.
The Met launched its own internal investigation, dubbed Operation Jorica, several months ago, which uncovered potential problems with officers brought on during this seven-year window.
Vetting procedures exist to filter out candidates whose integrity may be compromised by financial difficulties, as well as those with criminal records or associations with known offenders.
Some recruits may have undergone inadequate screening, while others potentially received no background checks whatsoever before being granted police powers, per The Guardian.
The force identified these potential failings earlier this year, ahead of the upcoming probe by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services.
The Met Police is facing a major probe after 300 recruits were deemed not to have been properly vetted
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The investigations follow a series of scandals leading to a crisis of trust in the Met Police.
Wayne Couzens, who a subsequent inquiry determined should never have been permitted to become an officer, kidnapped and killed Sarah Everard in March 2021.
David Carrick exploited his position within the Met to terrorise female victims during an extended campaign of rape and sexual violence, with multiple complaints against him going unaddressed.
A review commissioned from Louise Casey in October 2022 revealed deeply flawed vetting systems and practices that enabled individuals suspected of serious offences, including sexual assault and domestic abuse, to either join or remain within the force.
The Home Secretary will ask His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services to conduct the investigation
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The majority of these recruits joined during the police uplift programme, when the previous Conservative Government added 20,000 officers between 2020 and 2023, placing significant pressure on forces to hire rapidly.
This followed a decade of cuts that had reduced police numbers by 20,000.
The potential vetting failures occurred before Sir Mark Rowley took charge as commissioner in September 2022, during the tenures of Dame Cressida Dick and Lord Hogan-Howe.
Since assuming leadership, approximately 1,500 officers have departed as part of what Sir Mark describes as efforts to reform the organisation.
The investigations follow a series of scandals leading to a crisis of trust in the Met Police
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The Met is currently conducting urgent “revetting” of recruits whose appointments fell within the investigated period.
It has also been suggested that other constabularies across the country may have committed comparable errors in the hiring process during the same period, per The Guradian.