Hard-hitting measures needed to eradicate toxic police culture, committee warns

In a report into policing published on Friday (November 10), it calls on police forces to implement specific measures to restore trust with communities and transform workforce culture.

The Home Affairs Select Committee initially launched an inquiry into what policing priorities should look like and how to ensure sufficient resources were allocated to meet future challenges.

However, evidence submitted to the committee made clear that policing’s first priority must be to look inward and ensure it has the right people and right culture in place to deliver effective policing to communities and earn public trust.

It suggests policing must do more to address the fact that some people are likely to be attracted to the role precisely because of the power it wields.

Frequent and continued cases of servicing officers committing serious criminal offences and evidence of toxic workforce cultures has not yet “triggered the scale or speed of reform needed”, the committee found.

It highlights that there is urgent need for more effective mechanisms to root out and remove individuals who are fundamentally unfit to hold such a position of power.

The report urges widespread changes in officer recruitment, ongoing vetting and disciplinary processes to ensure wrongdoers have nowhere to hide. Some barriers to dismissal should be removed, with particular concerns around two to three years delays even when a criminal offence has been committed.

To ensure consistent and high professionalism across the police service, the report calls for policing to consider a ‘fitness to practice’ model that ensures serving officers have the right attributes, skills and values to do the job.

Such an approach would aim to instil a culture of learning and development while also being a less adversarial system than existing misconduct and performance mechanisms, it says.

Progress in recruiting a diverse and open workforce that reflects the communities it seeks to serve remains “inadequate”, says the committee.

It added: “The perception of disproportionality in the use of stop and search persists and continues to harm community relations. Further research is required to ensure officers have the knowledge to use these measures appropriately, understanding how to weigh up the benefits of its use as a tool to suppress crime with the costs in terms of community confidence.

“Greater value should be placed on neighbourhood policing as a critical tool for connecting with local areas. Improvements should also be made to how victims are supported, with specialist tape and serious sexual offences (RASSO) officers in every force and greater availability of ‘by and for’ services.

The Metropolitan Police Service remains a “particular concern”, says the committe, and must be shown to demonstrate real institutional change.

It said the Government should work with the Mayor of London to ensure that the findings of the Casey Review are implemented to deliver meaningful reform.

The committee also calls for a further independent review to be conducted to monitor and measure what progress has been made.

The Government also needs to do more to set the strategic direction of policing in England and Wales to ensure it has the priorities, skills and resources. The patchwork of different approaches and initiatives taken by the 43 separate police forces can tend towards fragmented results, the committee found. Stronger central direction and clearer national standards would ensure the public has greater confidence in the service they can expect.

Chair of the Home Affairs Committee, Dame Diana Johnson MP, said: “The challenges facing policing today are immense. Evermore sophisticated online crime, unrelenting demand to plug gaps in other public services including mental health services , and plummeting public confidence.

“There are thousands of committed and conscientious police officers and staff carrying out a vital service intent on keeping the public safe. But the fact remains that unacceptable numbers of them have no place in a modern police force and this continues to have a devastating impact on policing outcomes and public confidence.

“It is critical that the right framework is in place that supports police officers to attain the highest professional standards, recognising  the complex challenges they face and respecting  the valuable contributions they make to society.

“Current mechanisms for rooting out bad behaviour, unprofessionalism and even serious criminality among serving officers are simply not good enough.

“Forces need to face up to the reality of sexism, racism and homophobia in their ranks and take systemic action to stamp it out. The Met have set the right example to forces nationwide, for instance, by banning police officers from paying for sex and so perpetrating commercial sexual exploitation. This policy should be adopted by every force across the country.”

Dame Diana added: “Policing in the 21st century faces many complex and evolving challenges. The Government must ensure that long-term strategic direction, as well as resourcing, is in place that will enable police forces across the country to meet that challenge.”