VETTING of police officers ends to be “much, much stronger”, according to a former senior investigating officer at Scotland Yard.
Simon Harding was commenting after Metropolitan Police commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said the force was stepping up efforts to identify hundreds of rogue officers.
Mr Harding told GB News: “Probably one of the biggest priorities is vetting. The levels of vetting that used to happen…we had seven levels of vetting before you even could take the uniform.
“You know, people coming to your house and looking at your neighbours, and looking at your associates, and speaking to your parents, and looking at where you live, and then you go to Hendon for five months where that triages a lot of officers that weren’t suitable – those things have all gone now.
“So you literally are within this paper administration of applications and then going into your role if you pass that.
“This has caused a problem, in my opinion, going back years where we’ve taken away that kind of process of vetting which helped identify people at a very early stage.”
In a discussion with Mark Longhurst, he continued: “Yes, people would get through, when you cross over from force to force, because you’re already sort of branded a police officer, the vetting levels aren’t necessarily as high as they would be.
“That can cause a problem, but that the intelligence that comes with that person should follow them, obviously, and you should be able to see that but I still think there’s – and I think everyone does – the level of vetting needs to be much, much stronger.”
Mr Harding said removing corrupt officers can be a lengthy process: “The sacking takes such a long time, even when they’ve admitted it in the first instance.
“He’s quite right when he talks about these independent tribunals that can actually reinstate somebody afterwards. And that can’t be right.
“It should be realistically like anything else where you can see something which is clear and obvious, it’s wrongdoing, and that person should be dismissed immediately.”
