The best drugs are the ones you get off of bent coppers!
(So I hear)
*The offences committed by officers hired in the past two years included wounding, theft and handling stolen goods. The watchdog said the force also did not know whether all the officers employed in sensitive posts, such as child protection, major crime investigation and informant handling, had passed the necessary security vetting.*
*It added that more than 2,000 warrant cards issued to officers who had subsequently left the force remained unaccounted for and that it had failed to learn the lessons from its corruption-blighted investigation into the 1987 murder of private investigator Daniel Morgan.*
*The HM Inspectorate of Constabulary, Fire and Rescue Services said that there were “fundamental flaws” in Scotland Yard’s anti-corruption safeguards and that it had also recently hired people with criminal connections and failed to supervise them to minimise risks.*
At lot of this stuff is bullshit. Did Sarah Everards killer have a prior for rape or murder? It seems like that is what this is really about.
Also, what happens to the gaurdian readers veiw on this if it turns out some of these officers are black? Is it a complete 180 “oh thats great no problem” or do we still oppose hiring a black officer because he snatched a wallet or got caught with weed 15 years ago?
Heard some MP saying that with a the Met having over 40,000 there will always be challenging behaviour and that mistakes will happen simply bc of the size of the Met.
Break it up then. Make 6-8 smaller forces that can managed properly, that management don’t lose control of, where fundamentally racist, misogynist, homophobic, lawbreaking, violent men can be found and removed, where training issues can be adequately managed.
It’s very clearly not working the way it is and the police are not doing a good enough job. The general public appear to be at risk from the very people paid to keep them safe.
It’s ludicrous to think 40 thousand staff can be managed as one united force- why would anyone think that’s realistic.
I don’t think having a criminal record should necessarily bar you from being in the police, since 1. people change, 2. former offenders can better know how to identify, interact with or catch criminals and 3. the difference between a lot of people and criminals is that the criminals were caught (think of how many you know who did illegal drugs, sped their car, got into fights or did other things in their youth but were never caught. I know people who’ve done minor crimes and been convicted and others who’ve got away with way more major crimes like serial assaults, fraud or being involved with stolen cars, because they got lucky and know how to act in court. Me and my friends were cautioned by police as teenagers, my friend asked the officer “c’mon didn’t you get up to stuff when you were younger?” and his reply was “yeh, but I wasn’t stupid enough to get caught”).
That said, if officers are getting around vetting due to corruption or incompetence, that’s a definite problem.
Ah this guy again, OP there was an article posted yesterday (I believe) where the victim’s family thanked the met…. In the interests of balance, can you share that?
Well you lot want them to employ people local to their areas. If you exclude all people with minor criminal records you’re not going to have much of a London based police service.
The hilarious bit being, you’re going to exclude a lot of black people who might otherwise want to join the police. Well done, you’re so virtuous you’re excluding the people you like to act like you’re helping.
[removed]
Surely not hiring people with records is admitting the rehabilitation system doesn’t work.
Do we know what crimes they committed and when? I don’t care if someone done for pot, or someone who committed a minor fraud years ago, becomes a police.
It depends what the criminal record is for. If your a good, capable person now but you shop lifted when you was 15 should that stand in the way of people getting a job?
Don’t really care, depending on the circumstances of those records.
Meanwhile my brother having a record stopped my straight and narrow sister from being accepted.
Some wonkey recruitment going on here.
This is a very disingenuous article – clickbait because they know anti-police sentiment is at an all time high.
Most people can offend and then turn their lives around (source I work for a charity which deals with addiction, homelessness and offenders). So I don’t have an issue with people with criminal records becoming police officers as long as it’s a minor offence.
If it’s something major then yes obviously these people should not be in a position of authority – however I highly doubt most of these fall under that category.
As someone who has a criminal record this should not frighten you. They will have been vetted and they probably have minor offences. They say fight fire with fire. People who have been to prison have great inside knowledge of criminal activity. We are very street wize and we know how to talk to people and not talk at people. I would not be allowed to be a police officer as my offence was surveer. Whilst being in prison l learned about the criminal under world. How to obtain certain items. What to cut drugs with and how to launder money. I was also taught how to expand a customer base.
If someone’s served their time then who has an issue with this? These guys have literally been rehabilitated, congratulations to us and our system.
You can’t just treat someone as an outcast for the rest of their entire lives after a crime.
People can have a record for all sorts of minor things. A friend of mine got done for DJing an illegal rave in his late teens (years ago) so hardly a menace to society. People can do silly things.
I can’t even deliver for Uber Eats or Deliveroo. Had accounts cancelled for a speeding conviction, 85 in a 50. Absolute joke
I haven’t read the article because seems a bit silly to me, so forgive me if I have missed something significant. However I don’t entirely see the issue here? Unless we are talking about significant and highly serious levels of criminality, what is the issue with having a criminal record?
We have a Rehabilitation of Offender’s Act for a reason. To allow people to change for the better. Do we want our criminal justice system to punish forever beyond that of sentencing or do we want our system to punish suitably while giving people the opportunity to become a better person within society? Because sometimes it feels like people expect both and that just isn’t possible.
Not sure I like this rhetoric – wasn’t prison or punishment supposed to be a rehabilitative process?
What’s the point if we’re just going to deny people with a criminal record access to jobs etc?
Wait. I can’t get a job in McDonald’s with a degree because I have a drug charge. How…wow. man the system is broken
I know this is going to sound a weird slant on this – namely, because it is ha ha – but hiring criminals to capture criminals isn’t quite as insane as one thinks. Poacher turning gamekeeper type thing.
Yes, I appreciate this probably wasn’t OP’s intention, but, just to spice it up a little😊
I’m from the states and I completely would expect a different comment section if this was posted over here
Cheer Boys and girls
This is bs in some ways. If we’re talking a criminal record for shoplifting as a teenager or smoking a spliff in the park then that really shouldn’t be a big deal
These things should be judged on a case by case basis and you can’t comment on that without knowing what the offence was, length of time since the offence, behaviour since the offence etc.
2000 warrant cards not returned by people who have left or been fired by the force too. Potentially 2000 crims going around abusing their non-existent authority.
Edit: Dunno why this was downvoted, since it’s in the HM Inspectorate report. More downvotes? Dirty cops on Reddit, as per.
Whether or not people with criminal records for minor things should be allowed to join the police is a bit of a different subject/debate.
The point here is that they failed to vet, so they didn’t know at the time. This is a big problem.
Basically criminals in the position of public trust…Now that is fking scary
Good grief. A shocking statistic.
I have been a victim of corrupt Police years ago. They framed me for jumping a red light.
Criminal record could be anything including driving offences or being drunk while going to Uni… stupid post
32 comments
The best drugs are the ones you get off of bent coppers!
(So I hear)
*The offences committed by officers hired in the past two years included wounding, theft and handling stolen goods. The watchdog said the force also did not know whether all the officers employed in sensitive posts, such as child protection, major crime investigation and informant handling, had passed the necessary security vetting.*
*It added that more than 2,000 warrant cards issued to officers who had subsequently left the force remained unaccounted for and that it had failed to learn the lessons from its corruption-blighted investigation into the 1987 murder of private investigator Daniel Morgan.*
*The HM Inspectorate of Constabulary, Fire and Rescue Services said that there were “fundamental flaws” in Scotland Yard’s anti-corruption safeguards and that it had also recently hired people with criminal connections and failed to supervise them to minimise risks.*
At lot of this stuff is bullshit. Did Sarah Everards killer have a prior for rape or murder? It seems like that is what this is really about.
Also, what happens to the gaurdian readers veiw on this if it turns out some of these officers are black? Is it a complete 180 “oh thats great no problem” or do we still oppose hiring a black officer because he snatched a wallet or got caught with weed 15 years ago?
Heard some MP saying that with a the Met having over 40,000 there will always be challenging behaviour and that mistakes will happen simply bc of the size of the Met.
Break it up then. Make 6-8 smaller forces that can managed properly, that management don’t lose control of, where fundamentally racist, misogynist, homophobic, lawbreaking, violent men can be found and removed, where training issues can be adequately managed.
It’s very clearly not working the way it is and the police are not doing a good enough job. The general public appear to be at risk from the very people paid to keep them safe.
It’s ludicrous to think 40 thousand staff can be managed as one united force- why would anyone think that’s realistic.
I don’t think having a criminal record should necessarily bar you from being in the police, since 1. people change, 2. former offenders can better know how to identify, interact with or catch criminals and 3. the difference between a lot of people and criminals is that the criminals were caught (think of how many you know who did illegal drugs, sped their car, got into fights or did other things in their youth but were never caught. I know people who’ve done minor crimes and been convicted and others who’ve got away with way more major crimes like serial assaults, fraud or being involved with stolen cars, because they got lucky and know how to act in court. Me and my friends were cautioned by police as teenagers, my friend asked the officer “c’mon didn’t you get up to stuff when you were younger?” and his reply was “yeh, but I wasn’t stupid enough to get caught”).
That said, if officers are getting around vetting due to corruption or incompetence, that’s a definite problem.
Ah this guy again, OP there was an article posted yesterday (I believe) where the victim’s family thanked the met…. In the interests of balance, can you share that?
Well you lot want them to employ people local to their areas. If you exclude all people with minor criminal records you’re not going to have much of a London based police service.
The hilarious bit being, you’re going to exclude a lot of black people who might otherwise want to join the police. Well done, you’re so virtuous you’re excluding the people you like to act like you’re helping.
[removed]
Surely not hiring people with records is admitting the rehabilitation system doesn’t work.
Do we know what crimes they committed and when? I don’t care if someone done for pot, or someone who committed a minor fraud years ago, becomes a police.
It depends what the criminal record is for. If your a good, capable person now but you shop lifted when you was 15 should that stand in the way of people getting a job?
Don’t really care, depending on the circumstances of those records.
Meanwhile my brother having a record stopped my straight and narrow sister from being accepted.
Some wonkey recruitment going on here.
This is a very disingenuous article – clickbait because they know anti-police sentiment is at an all time high.
Most people can offend and then turn their lives around (source I work for a charity which deals with addiction, homelessness and offenders). So I don’t have an issue with people with criminal records becoming police officers as long as it’s a minor offence.
If it’s something major then yes obviously these people should not be in a position of authority – however I highly doubt most of these fall under that category.
As someone who has a criminal record this should not frighten you. They will have been vetted and they probably have minor offences. They say fight fire with fire. People who have been to prison have great inside knowledge of criminal activity. We are very street wize and we know how to talk to people and not talk at people. I would not be allowed to be a police officer as my offence was surveer. Whilst being in prison l learned about the criminal under world. How to obtain certain items. What to cut drugs with and how to launder money. I was also taught how to expand a customer base.
If someone’s served their time then who has an issue with this? These guys have literally been rehabilitated, congratulations to us and our system.
You can’t just treat someone as an outcast for the rest of their entire lives after a crime.
People can have a record for all sorts of minor things. A friend of mine got done for DJing an illegal rave in his late teens (years ago) so hardly a menace to society. People can do silly things.
I can’t even deliver for Uber Eats or Deliveroo. Had accounts cancelled for a speeding conviction, 85 in a 50. Absolute joke
I haven’t read the article because seems a bit silly to me, so forgive me if I have missed something significant. However I don’t entirely see the issue here? Unless we are talking about significant and highly serious levels of criminality, what is the issue with having a criminal record?
We have a Rehabilitation of Offender’s Act for a reason. To allow people to change for the better. Do we want our criminal justice system to punish forever beyond that of sentencing or do we want our system to punish suitably while giving people the opportunity to become a better person within society? Because sometimes it feels like people expect both and that just isn’t possible.
Not sure I like this rhetoric – wasn’t prison or punishment supposed to be a rehabilitative process?
What’s the point if we’re just going to deny people with a criminal record access to jobs etc?
Wait. I can’t get a job in McDonald’s with a degree because I have a drug charge. How…wow. man the system is broken
I know this is going to sound a weird slant on this – namely, because it is ha ha – but hiring criminals to capture criminals isn’t quite as insane as one thinks. Poacher turning gamekeeper type thing.
Yes, I appreciate this probably wasn’t OP’s intention, but, just to spice it up a little😊
I’m from the states and I completely would expect a different comment section if this was posted over here
Cheer Boys and girls
This is bs in some ways. If we’re talking a criminal record for shoplifting as a teenager or smoking a spliff in the park then that really shouldn’t be a big deal
These things should be judged on a case by case basis and you can’t comment on that without knowing what the offence was, length of time since the offence, behaviour since the offence etc.
2000 warrant cards not returned by people who have left or been fired by the force too. Potentially 2000 crims going around abusing their non-existent authority.
Edit: Dunno why this was downvoted, since it’s in the HM Inspectorate report. More downvotes? Dirty cops on Reddit, as per.
Whether or not people with criminal records for minor things should be allowed to join the police is a bit of a different subject/debate.
The point here is that they failed to vet, so they didn’t know at the time. This is a big problem.
Basically criminals in the position of public trust…Now that is fking scary
Good grief. A shocking statistic.
I have been a victim of corrupt Police years ago. They framed me for jumping a red light.
Criminal record could be anything including driving offences or being drunk while going to Uni… stupid post