Almost 600 police officers have been sacked for misconduct or misconduct in England and Wales in one year, according to figures released on Tuesday (November 5), as the police struggle to rebuild public trust after a series of scandals.
Redundancies increased by 50% over the past year between April 2023 and March 2024, bringing the number of police officers dismissed to 593, highlighted the College of Policing, a training organization for law enforcement in England and Wales.
They include 74 cases of sexual assault or reprehensible behavior of a sexual nature, 18 cases of possession of images of child pornography and 71 cases of discriminatory behavior, reasons that can be combined and lead to the dismissal of the officers involved.
There “dishonesty” in the functions performed is the main cause of dismissals (125 cases). In 66 cases, the dismissal was motivated by the disclosure of confidential information or unauthorized access to said data.
Racist, homophobic and misogynistic behavior
The reputation of the English police was deeply damaged by the March 2021 kidnapping, rape and murder of Sarah Everard, a 33-year-old Londoner, by Wayne Couzens, a member of the force since sentenced to life in prison.
Almost two years later, London police officer David Carrick was also sentenced to life in prison for dozens of rapes and other sexual assaults on twelve women over a period of approximately twenty years.
Beyond these high-profile cases, several reports have denounced racist, homophobic and misogynistic behavior within the police and many voices call for reforms.
“It is extremely disappointing to see that the conduct of a number of police officers is not at all up to the standards that we have set and that the public has a right to demand.”lamented Tom Harding, an official at the College of Police. “His behavior tarnishes the functioning of the police and erodes public trust”he added, stressing that his referral attested to the existence of “robust procedures” internally.
England and Wales have a total of 147,000 police officers in their territory. In January 2023, the Metropolitan Police (responsible for Greater London) announced that 1,633 cases of sexual assault or domestic violence involving more than 1,000 members of the police force over the last ten years would be re-examined.
