The Constancy of Corruption

Who will hose out the stables this time?

Police crises are nothing new. Met Commissioner Sir Robert Mark, who in the 1970s made his name combating police corruption

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In 2012 the Home Secretary, Theresa May, introduced austerity measures to reduce police spending. May was famously dismissive when warned of the likely consequences. In 2015, announcing yet another round of cuts, she told the Police Federation to ‘stop crying wolf.’

After mortally wounding UK policing, May continued failing upwards. She became PM, failed to win a Parliamentary majority against Jeremy Corbyn and made a complete dog’s breakfast of Brexit. She now makes a fortune on the public speaking circuit while, in her spare time, does a passable Ted Heath impression in the House of Commons.

In 2012 I was serving on the Met’s anticorruption command, on a team responsible for running covert operations against police officers. As the scale of May’s cuts were announced, we discussed likely outcomes. One of our detective sergeants (a man not given to exaggeration) said glumly, “within a decade we’ll need a CIB4 to sort this out.”  He was referring to the infamous CIB3 and ‘Ghost Squad,’ to which we were a successor unit.

And so, over a decade on from 2012, the Met faces a fresh round of existential crises. How accurate was my DS’s gloomy prognosis? And what, if anything, can the Met do to mitigate the corruption tsunami threatening to engulf it? Mitigate is all the Met can do, by the way – there’s no money left to throw at the problem.

Personally, and I’m not saying this lightly, I think the tsunami has already begun. It just hasn’t hit land. I don’t have the statistics, but I talk to a lot of police officers. They tell me, partially due to a scarily inexperienced workforce and staggeringly poor pay, things aren’t looking great on the complaints and discipline front. Cases like this and this are hardly new, but they’re certainly more frequent.

Ex-PC Muhammed Mustafa Darr, accused of a raft of dishonesty offences

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First, a trip down memory lane, because we’ve been here before. In 1998, the MPS faced two specific and interlinked crises. The first was the public inquiry into the murder of Stephen Lawrence, chaired by Sir William Macpherson. Macpherson’s report wouldn’t be released until early 1999, but it was clear the Met would be severely criticized for ‘institutional racism’ revealed by failures in the Lawrence investigation. Furthermore, the inquiry unearthed credible allegations of corruption between CID officers and the families of one of the suspects.

Which leads us to the second crisis. The police informant-handling system had gone rotten, leading to corrupt relationships between detectives and the criminals they were investigating. The scale of the problem was existential, to the point where the Commissioner authorised the creation of a secret ‘Ghost Squad’ to scope the true extent of the problem. What they found was so concerning it led to the formation of ‘CIB3’, a proactive unit dedicated to rooting out bent officers. In turn, CIB3 itself would be accused of wrongdoing for (a) being overzealous and (b) becoming a tool of retribution by senior officers looking to settle scores.

I remember friends telling tales of detectives disappearing from divisional CID offices overnight. They’d been seconded to what would become CIB3. They weren’t volunteers, either. Some had even fallen foul of the old CIB2 - someone decided they needed poachers to become gamekeepers.

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As they say, history doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes. In the late 90s, the Met was faced with a major cultural and operational dilemma.

As it does, again, today.

This time, though, there’s the added problem of May’s legacy. We’re almost back to the pre-Edmund Davies days of the late 70s in terms of pay. As I’ve written before, police officers aren’t angels by virtue of joining the Job. Most are honest people, but some aren’t. Add financial insecurity to the equation and you have a fertile environment for corruption to flourish.

In fact, do you know what the Met’s beginning to remind me of? The prison service. Prison corruption remains endemic, to the point where in the early 2010s the Met was asked to create a dedicated unit to look at the issue. Now the Met itself faces a similar problem – both are complex, thankless jobs with poor pay, status and an inexperienced workforce. In my time on DPS we investigated many bent prison officers, invariably involved in providing telephones, drugs and other contraband to prisoners. An ex-colleague who worked as a prison liaison officer would regularly tell horror stories. When I asked him who he could trust, he’d reply, “the prison’s dedicated intelligence guy and the Governor. Nobody else.” I remember a surveillance operation spilling into a prison carpark. We couldn’t let anyone in the prison service facilitate the job - “the screws are running a heroin supply operation, we can’t possibly include them,” said our man on the inside.

This is where we are. It’s 2023 and there are credible reports of police officers using foodbanks. There’s a mortgage crisis. Inflation is on an ever-upwards curve and London’s a hellish expensive place to live. How officers are expected to afford accommodation and travel remains a mystery to me. Soon, police officers living outside of the border with London might be slapped with a 12.50 charge every time they drive to work. Well done, Sadiq Khan!

The days of police accommodation and section houses are long gone (despite being pivotal to the morale and welfare of generations of younger officers). I remember that titan of police leadership, Bernard Hogan-Howe, saying something along the lines of ‘it’s not the Met’s job to be a landlord’ when challenged about the housing crisis facing his officers. Oh well, he’s in the House of Lords now. He’s free to have to occasional (subsidized) lunch with his old mate Theresa May. I’d also mention Bernie’s perks as Commissioner included… a free central London apartment.

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Okay, so you’re sitting on the Met’s Management Board. You don’t have any money or political capital to spend on improving pay and conditions. What do you do when faced with the coming misconduct tsunami?

We know Sir Mark Rowley has set up a new anticorruption unit, but it appears to be (perhaps unfairly) painted as ‘The WhatsApp Squad’ combined with a focus on officers involved in domestic violence. This is clearly a response to the Couzens and Carrick cases, but that’s only a fraction of the anticorruption landscape.

For what it’s worth, here’s what I would do (I suspect the Met ain’t going to offer me a gig as a consultant, but hey). None of this is rocket science, by the way. It’s policing, just with a slightly trickier target. Then I look at Management Board and wonder when was the last time any of them actually policed.

Prevention

Yes, crime prevention is Sir Robert Peel 101. But how do you prevent police corruption? Well, hiring the right people is a good start. This is another Catch-22 for the Met; the levers for attracting quality recruits were traditionally (1) an interesting career (2) a sense of vocation and (3) a fair pay and pension. For too many officers, 1 & 3 are pretty much history. And a sense of vocation doesn’t pay the bills. That means, inevitably, poorer quality candidates will have to be filtered through the vetting net. Vetting is one of the single most important tools for preventing corruption. The bottom line? As an anticorruption investigator, easily 50% of the officers and staff I worked against shouldn’t even have been in the police in the first place.

The answer? The Met should make a hardnosed policy decision: dig its heels in and refuse to recruit anyone if there’s a question mark over their suitability. Then kick the ball back to the Home Office, insisting they can’t properly recruit until the Winsor-era pay structure is reformed. Sadly, this would involve someone of NPCC rank developing vertebrae. After all, they caved into meeting the police uplift target promised by the Conservatives (who like all politicians are firmly wedded to the ‘police numbers’ mantra). The Met must have known that would involve the dilution of standards.

Meanwhile, more than a few train and tube drivers earn 60K a year and are demanding more – funnily enough the Mayor sits down with them because they’re unionised.

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Systems Misuse

Another prevention issue where the Met performs poorly is information systems misuse (which I look at in more detail here). I remember one PCSO interviewed for unauthorised systems use (he was looking up his mates on the intelligence database) saying, “well, it’s like Google, innit?” No, it fucking well isn’t you buffoon. These are the sort of people the Met finds itself hiring.

Tens of thousands of people have access to sensitive police systems like MERLIN, a safeguarding / intelligence tool containing data on vulnerable children and adults

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There is, quite properly, a ‘dare to share’ culture in policing, one where information has to be effectively disseminated. On the other hand, training around systems use and intelligence management remains inadequate for frontline staff. Intrusive supervision around systems use is virtually non-existent at a local level (where most abuse occurs). Staggeringly, in my time in the Met, there was no ‘how to spot systems misuse’ input on promotion courses.

That needs putting right. Units badly require what would nowadays probably be called ‘an information security champion’ to proactively audit and question systems use. This isn’t a bossy prefect type role – this is actively empowering police officers (a) to use systems better and (b) stay on the straight and narrow. Oh, and of course the corrupt officer looking to use systems for criminal purposes knows he or she’s more likely to be caught.

Yes, it’s our old friend prevention again.

For the cost of one or two sergeants per BCU you could completely change the Met’s information security and (yes) misconduct landscape. You’d probably put a few DPS officers out of jobs too. You’d help new staff develop skills and understanding. If there’s any promotion-hungry young thrusters out there looking for a project, you can have that one for free.

As it stands, I reckon more than a few frontline police units would have a tricky time faced with an inspection by the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) when it comes to data protection and Management of Police Information (MOPI).

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Intervention

I’ll quote my old superintendent again. When the naughty stick comes out, ‘nail the crow to the barn door.’ I’m not even going to point the finger of blame at the CPS for this one – our dealings with their Special Casework Section were usually positive. I can’t say the same of the courts, however, who were occasionally far too lenient with police officers deserving of custodial sentences.

Anonymous reporting systems need to be effective and discreet. They also need to be proportionate. I don’t care if Pc Miggins told a rude joke or thinks identifying as a cat is silly. I do want to know if he’s looking his mates up on the PNC or stealing drugs during stop and searches or beating up his partner. I won’t repeat myself too much, as I’ve talked about this before here.

Crucially, operational outcomes shouldn’t be watered-down by ‘Gold Groups’ of senior officers more interested in politicking and ‘corporate reputation’ than dealing with wrong ‘uns. As a lowly DC, you have to bite your lip when you see wrongdoing downgraded for reasons that have little to do with justice and more to do with arse-covering. I was once told that was because “I didn’t understand the big picture” by some onanist of a senior officer.

Shortly after I left, DPS itself was embroiled in a scandal turning partly on management decision-making. The irony did not escape me.

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Leadership

Sergeants - underpaid, under-supported and undervalued

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Regular readers will know I constantly bang on about this. I make no apologies, either. The selection and training of line managers needs to be urgently reviewed. In fact, the ethos behind the entire police promotion system needs revisiting, particularly in how we pay and reward operational leaders (sergeants and inspectors). Too many police officers view these ranks as part of their promotion tourism itinerary, not proper roles in and of themselves. The Job, for them, is a pleasure cruise to Assistant Chief Constable. Sergeant is a rainy day-trip to the Isle of Wight. Inspectors might like to suggest what destination their rank might be. A weekend in Skegness?

My early career turned on the tutelage and advice of competent line managers. Again, and I’ve said it before, the guidance of such people can be a privilege if they know what they’re doing. At the moment? There’s too much of the blind leading the blind.

Another issue is ‘industrial relations.’ Corporate HR and welfare processes in the Met treat people like numbers. They’re dehumanising. They lead to people becoming disaffected. Disaffected people are more likely to do bad things. Good line managers smooth that stuff over.

So for me, Action 2 on my emergency list (after vetting and recruitment) would be improving and supporting line management.

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External Oversight

This ties in with some of the issues Baroness Casey identifies, which I discussed here. First of all, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) isn’t match fit. It’s suffered as many (and probably worse) leadership crises as the Met of late. The IOPC needs do less and do it better. I couldn’t believe it when I saw the IOPC involving themselves in the recent horrendous stabbings in Nottingham because of the presence of a police van. Yes, I know its linked to events in Cardiff, but it’s a classic knee-jerk by an organisation trying too hard to be relevant.

I would propose a taskforce made up of officers from the NCA, UK police services (permanently transferred, not seconded) and a successor agency to IOPC (hint - hire some investigators). It should have genuinely external oversight to stop things getting too cosy with the organisations they police. It should only concentrate on network corruption, serious criminal offences, deaths following police contact and genuinely strategic ‘critical incidents’ impacting on UK law enforcement. Their dirty secret is police PSDs deal with the vast majority of complaints anyway.

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I’m glad I got that off my chest. Thanks if you made it this far.

Some historians suggest the Romans didn’t realise their civilization was dying. Well, not until a load of trouser-wearing barbarians arrived and took the place over, that is. I’m genuinely not a gloom and doom merchant, but the hollowing out of our police services is dangerous. A properly functioning justice system is one of the pillars of a prosperous democracy. What I’m saying about the police is equally true of the courts and wider legal apparatus, including prisons and probation. And ours is, slowly but surely, dying.

In southern Italy, a speeding ticket can be ‘sorted out’ over espresso with a traffic cop and an envelope containing a hundred euros. Italy’s also a country where magistrates have to look under their cars for bombs every morning. Rotterdam and Le Havre are riddled with officials on the Mafia Shqiptare’s payroll. Don’t think this stuff is confined to the Third World.

And it’s coming here.

It doesn’t help the fish rots from the head. A cursory examination of our political class hardly sets an example to a police officer contemplating doing something moody. “They all do it,” he or she will say to themself as they log onto the intelligence system. “Why shouldn’t I?”

The only answer, for the police, is to hold the line as best they can. You see, nobody else will. No pressure or anything. Just don’t expect a pay rise.

And to those decent police officers and staff?

I say thank you. I really do. Please stay safe.

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