HMICFRS report is 'latest indictment of the state of policing’, says EVAW

The report published on Wednesday (November 2) concluded that it is currently “too easy for the wrong people” to join and to stay in the police.

The inspection was commissioned by the then-Home Secretary Priti Patel following the kidnap, rape and murder of Sarah Everard by a serving Metropolitan Police Service officer, which the inspectorate say raised substantial questions about police recruitment, vetting and standards of behaviour in the workplace.

The EVAW says the report emphasises the “long standing” nature of these problems and the “ample warnings” that have been ignored going back at least a decade.

“Worryingly, it also comes at a time when the police are carrying out a major recruitment campaign to bring in tens of thousands of new officers,” it added, which the inspectors highlight “carries risk”.

The EVAW was particularly concerned that too often the recruitment process was not rigorous enough to identify unsuitable applicants, with some forces appointing applicants without seeking references from previous employers or even assessing them in person first.

“Disturbingly, in a review of 725 vetting files, there were ‘questionable’ vetting decisions in almost one in five cases,” it said.

“Police officers and staff received vetting clearance after committing offences of indecent exposure and domestic-abuse related assaults, as well as being suspects of racially aggravated damage, serious violence and rape.

“Forces reportedly justified vetting clearance decisions by considering these violent and abusive acts as a ‘one-off’, being reassured that ‘time had passed’ since the behaviour, and in one force because they felt they couldn’t consider information that hadn’t resulted in a conviction – with one senior officer saying ‘innocent until [proven] guilty’.”

In some forces, a police officer or staff who is arrested in another force area would not come to the attention of vetting units unless self-reported, while vetting that revealed potential “discriminatory, inflammatory or extremist” language and views did not result in rejection.

Some “risky vetting decisions were influenced by the need to meet certain recruitment targets, leading some forces to clear applicants despite knowing disturbing information about them.

Of particular concern for the EVAW was the “alarmingly high number” of female officers and staff experiencing “appalling behaviour” by colleagues, including sexual harassment and serious sexual assault.

“Female officers provided disturbing accounts of their male colleagues’ behaviour, some of which ‘came from supervisory ranks’,” said the EVAW. “This included male officers pursuing women in lower ranks for sex (including via police email systems), viewing pornography on suspects’ phones (not as part of investigations), making inappropriate sexual comments about victims and women in public, stopping cars of women they regard as attractive (referred to as ‘booty patrol’), and setting out to take advantage of female colleagues who had consumed alcohol at work-related events.

“In many of the cases relayed by female officers, the perpetrator had been previously reported for similar behaviour but the force failed to take seriously or investigate them.

“Many spoke about worries of ‘repercussions’ for making reports, and most officers were dissatisfied with the outcome of reporting.”

HMICFRS believed “the poor behaviour” it was informed about is prevalent in many – if not all – forces with some failing to consider the link between misogynistic behaviour towards police colleagues and members of the public.

“Today’s report is the latest in a growing pile of alarming evidence about the police response to violence against women and girls, including that perpetrated by its own officers,” said the EVAW.

“Only last week, Baroness Casey’s interim report on police misconduct in the Met found its culture of racism and misogyny empowers officers to abuse with impunity, days after the National Police Chiefs’ Council and the College of Policing found forces are failing to act on police-perpetrated abuse.

“These follow the Independent Office for Police Conduct’s findings under Operation Hotton earlier this year, which found misogyny in the Met Police, while the conclusions of Baroness Casey’s Inquiry and the Angiolini Review are still to come.

“The inspectorate underlines the importance of these findings, noting the sheer scale of officers’ access to police information, and their ‘intrusive powers over other citizens’, normally people who are vulnerable at that time.”

The EVAW says the 43 recommendations made in the HMICFRS report, described as “an unusually high number”, reflects the “extent of change needed”.

The EVAW says it is clear that at the root of this is “systemic misogyny, racism and other forms of discrimination that empower police officers to perpetrate violence with impunity”.

It adds: “These findings must be treated with urgency, given the rapid scale of police recruitment – and the ‘intrusive powers’ that police can exercise over other citizens.

“As the inspectorate points out ‘this will often be in relation to people who are vulnerable at that time’. They also reaffirm EVAW’s serious concerns about handing ever more police powers to an institution in crisis and what this means for women’s safety, and public safety more widely.”

Andrea Simon, director of the EVAW, said the report was “highly concerning”.

“These shocking findings by the police inspectorate are the latest indictment of the state of policing,” she said.

“It is abundantly clear that there are widespread and serious issues with vetting, standards, professional conduct, and systemic misogyny in policing which demands urgent and profound change.

“In this context it is not only counter-productive but clearly dangerous to rush into recruiting tens of thousands of new officers when such longstanding and deeply-rooted issues remain unaddressed.

“It is astounding that a public service which wields such power over our everyday lives is recruiting individuals without even meeting them face to face. What’s worse is that such practices continue while the government is handing ever more powers to the police through the Public Order Bill.

Ms Simon added: “It is highly concerning if we are enabling individuals with a history of abuse to join or remain in the police force where they have access to and power over vulnerable people.

“Women who have experienced violence and abuse are being both failed by the poor response to crimes like rape and domestic abuse and by the organisational culture of policing that has been slow to respond to the need to address misogyny and racism in its ranks.

“We keep hearing about plans to rebuild trust and confidence in the police, but we have yet more evidence of the extent of failings and a lack of concrete improvements in outcomes for women.

“Transparency, scrutiny and accountability are the building blocks to restoring confidence in policing. If there isn’t transparency and scrutiny about how police are doing their jobs, there won’t be confidence.”

Legal charity the Centre for Women’s Justice, which submitted a super-complaint in March 2020 on police perpetrated domestic abuse, said the report confirms what it has heard from many victims of such misconduct and more generally from women who have had “appalling encounters with misogynistic police officers and staff”.

In a statement it said: “This is not a Met police only problem. We hear of such reports from around the country of misogyny, sharing of hardcore pornography, sexual harassment and assault and domestic abuse.

“As our super-complaint into police perpetrated domestic abuse illustrated, women are fearful or reporting complaints of abuse by police officers and when they do, the complaints are poorly dealt with and rarely upheld which means such police officers can and do go on to repeat offend. Furthermore, female officers and staff are frequently victimised and sometimes investigated themselves often on trumped up charges

“Like any institution where employees have access to the vulnerable, the police should have the strictest recruitment and vetting systems. It is hard to fathom how an institution which gives its employees significant powers and the status of a uniform, can have allowed so many past and ongoing suspect and actual offenders into the service and remain free to offend again. It is utterly unacceptable that there isn’t the strictest interview and vetting procedures to ensure that potential abusers are not admitted to the police.

“There must now be radical transformation at every level to introduce a zero-tolerance culture. This should include a robust and sufficiently independent complaints process, and a proper whistleblowing system that will provide confidence to those who want to report or who witness misogyny and predatory behaviour that they won’t be victimised if they provide this information.”