In the shadow of recent scandal, the Metropolitan Police’s tougher vetting regime promised a cultural renaissance. Yet the admission yesterday that thousands of recruits slipped through without proper vetting, breeding predators within, reveals a force still haunted by its own institutional rot.
After the conviction of PC Wayne Cousins for the rape and murder of Sarah Everard while a serving officer five years ago, the Casey report into the force described an organisation that was culturally and operationally incapable of stopping very bad people from becoming warranted police officers. Tough new measures were introduced that doubled refusal rates for applicants and nearly 100 officers and staff were dismissed as a result of a re-vetting process.
