Some Met Police officers not trusted to speak to public, says chief

Some 3,000 Metropolitan Police officers cannot be fully deployed due to misconduct allegations or health issues, including "about 100" who are not trusted to speak to the public, commissioner Sir Mark Rowley has said.

He said about 500 officers of the 3,000 were suspended or on restricted duties.

Sir Mark told the BBC he lacked the power to sack them, which he described as "perverse".

He has been calling for a change in the rules on sacking officers.

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme some officers were "letting us down".

But Ken Marsh, chairman of the Met Police Federation, which represents police officers, said the force did have the "the opportunity to get rid of these officers and they haven't".

Sir Mark told the BBC: "I have about 100 officers in the organisation who have very restrictive conditions on them because, frankly, we don't trust them to talk to members of the public and it's completely mad that I have to employ people like that as police officers who you can't trust to have contact with the public, it's ridiculous."

He told presenter Nick Robinson he was unable throw them out of the force, due to restricted powers available to him.

"We're looking at whether we've got any new legal levers but on the conventional approaches, we can't, it's perverse, isn't it?," Sir Mark said.

Sir Mark also confirmed reports he employed some 3,000 officers he could not fully use. Many, he said, had "legitimate" health issues.

However, he added: "There's over 500 who are suspended or restricted because of misconduct investigations and there's too many who have restrictions that we need to get tougher on because that's more than 10% of my workforce who I can't fully deploy."

Sir Mark, who took over as head of the Met from Dame Cressida Dick in September, has vowed to renew trust in the force, after a series of scandals involving some of its officers.

Most notably, the force has been criticised over the murder of Sarah Everard, who was raped and killed by serving officer Wayne Couzens in March 2021.

In October, the Met set up an anti-corruption unit to root out criminal colleagues within the force.

A recent report by Baroness Casey found fewer than 1% of officers with multiple misconduct cases against them had been dismissed, and blamed misconduct procedures within the force.

Sir Mark said he was "appalled" by the findings and said "hundreds" of officers should have been thrown out.

He told the BBC that while the Met had "tens of thousands of great officers who are doing amazing things day in and day out for London", there were "hundreds of people who are letting us down and I'm trying to sort it out".

He added the force was getting "more assertive and creative in our use of existing powers", and was "encouraged" by the Home Office's "enthusiasm to look again at powers to remove officers we shouldn't have".

However, the Met Police Federation's Mr Marsh said Sir Mark "does have those powers, he has the ability to put someone on a gross misconduct board, where you can be dismissed".

"He's right about the 100 officers and I don't want them in my organisation either. But they've had the opportunity to get rid of these officers and they haven't. You can sack these people.

"The system is so robust - our regulations are so tight so you can dismiss them. But they haven't and I can't tell you why."

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