The Met is in trouble, your article highlights a myriad of problems in graphic detail. In support of your comments I would suggest that British Policing needs a thorough review, changed terms of service and a reduction in overall numbers, despite the alleged ‘increase’ of 20,000 have drastically reduced the service provided to the public.
In my view, a Royal Commission is required to ensure policing in the UK is fit for the 21st Century.
This was the most depressing thing that I have read in a long time. Not because it's wrong, but because it's right. It beautifully and accurately encapsulates my own feelings about an institution I have strong feelings about: pride, gratitude, and sorrow. Pride, because of the bravery, dedication, and skill of some of the exceptional people I had the great good fortune to work alongside; gratitude for skills, experiences and friendships it afforded me over 30 years; and sorrow, because it contains within it the seeds of its own destruction. I won't try to list those; Dom has already covered most of the bases, if not all. I daresay he will remember sitting in the canteen with a fag-ash encrusted old van driver, whose own efforts at describing the demise of the institution were reduced to the pithy but much quoted, "the job's fucked". This recurring theme throughout the history of the police has never been truer. I seem to have had a similar career path to Dom, albeit about 15 years earlier, when the Met was much closer to Dixon of Dock Green and The Sweeny than it is today. Roughly equal parts uniform /CID, gaining a first degree and a Master's by distance learning on the way. Spending the majority, 25 years, as a PS/DS, with a long stint in complaints and discipline (Area Complaints, CIB2, CIB3 Financial Investigation Unit), then SO12 National Terrorist Financial Investigation Unit, transitioning into Counter Terrorist Command, SO15). The last part of my career was having a prominent role in the investigation of the London bombings of 7/7 & 21/7, and even more so in the prevention of massive loss of life in the Liquid Bomb Airlines Conspiracy of 2006, saving between 3,000 and 4,000 lives, after which I retired, in 2007 to form my own AML/CFT Consultancy. The work of the police service in general, and the Met in particular, was exceptional during both of those events, and the stock of police officers had never, I think, been higher. The same could be said during the wave of knife and lorry attacks of more recent times, when the raw bravery of Met officers, including PaPD's Keith Palmer, was the talk of the town. Yet a few short years later (well 16, actually, but it's passed in a flash), we find ourselves with a very different scenario. I believe that the causes Dom lists are an accurate reflection of the truth. The successes I mention above happened, it seemed to me, in spite of the system, not because of it. I may be wrong, but the SIOs that led these successes seemed to me to be those who got their via the coalface, not the classroom . On the other hand, in the Anti-corruption Command, an essential in the greasy pole -race, there were some proper cock-ups, masterminded by aforementioned box-tickers. I don't have any magic solutions, but a return to getting real experience in Command roles, rather than fleeting periods of box filling.
Well written piece. Picking up on your comments about Sergeants and Inspectors... You're absolutely right and, if the powers that be are looking for effective reform, there is a huge cadre of retired Skippers and Guvnors who would jump at the chance of putting right all the wrongs perpetrated by senior officers under the banner of efficiency and promotion-hunting.
Spot on again. The Met is in need of a complete overhaul. How about a review/inquiry by someone who actually did the job? I’d like to see John Stevens have a go
I read the section about NCA/SO15 with interest. It would be interesting to see the reaction of MI5 to sweet whispers and promises from the NCA that they no longer need Plod to deal with terrorism. It would be the perfect answer to what SO13 did to Special Branch in 2005/06. SB not having attended the same mainly private schools and universities as senior members of the Civil Service and MI5 were knifed in the back by MI5. I believe Schadenfreude is the required word in this space.
Couzens & Carrick deserve to be buried under Belmarsh. The the outrage at their crimes is wholly justifiable. Public servants that have totally nuked any remaining vestiges of trust.
So I’ll leave these names here as I ask - what of the NHS? This great & venerable institution?
Dr Harold Shipman
Dr Manish Shah
Beverley Allit
Lucy Letby & not forgetting David Fuller.
And yet the media clamour & coverage feels & is different around these cases - cases where positions of authority &/or trust were abused again & again.
It is interesting to me that the Met have had two absolute villains and there are rightly searching questions to be asked. It’s a pity this doesn’t equally apply to other public services….
Personally, I don’t recognise your comment about PADP and flyers, but although I was (at twenty years service!) a “flyer”, I never was in PADP so I shall not show my ignorance but challenging that.
However, as a retired officer it strikes me as strange that the NHS are not subject to equal opprobrium and scrutiny. As a former SLT member I was never allowed to give ‘lack of resources’ as an excuse for poor performance in the bad old days of Bernie Two-Dads. Ever. That is the excuse frequently asserted by the NHS management to sympathetic press coverage and public demand that they be increased.
And so far as I am aware the Police hasn’t harboured within their ranks AT LEAST two (Shipman, Allitt) serial killers and maybe more… The NHS has, and where are or were the loud demands for their toxic culture of death to be challenged?
I agree 'big changes' are necessary, though I cannot from outside London see what they should be. From afar it seems that the move to area makes borough-based policing even harder to return to if "breaking up" the Met is pursued.
As the stones fly against the "greenhouse" the Met finds itself in, does it really make any sense to pull down the "greenhouse" and rebuild it as a series of igloos? Borough-based policing would have been an option, stop screaming Dom, instead the Met has non-borough based areas. Would any local authority want to have police governance added to them? No.
The Met is in trouble, your article highlights a myriad of problems in graphic detail. In support of your comments I would suggest that British Policing needs a thorough review, changed terms of service and a reduction in overall numbers, despite the alleged ‘increase’ of 20,000 have drastically reduced the service provided to the public.
In my view, a Royal Commission is required to ensure policing in the UK is fit for the 21st Century.
This was the most depressing thing that I have read in a long time. Not because it's wrong, but because it's right. It beautifully and accurately encapsulates my own feelings about an institution I have strong feelings about: pride, gratitude, and sorrow. Pride, because of the bravery, dedication, and skill of some of the exceptional people I had the great good fortune to work alongside; gratitude for skills, experiences and friendships it afforded me over 30 years; and sorrow, because it contains within it the seeds of its own destruction. I won't try to list those; Dom has already covered most of the bases, if not all. I daresay he will remember sitting in the canteen with a fag-ash encrusted old van driver, whose own efforts at describing the demise of the institution were reduced to the pithy but much quoted, "the job's fucked". This recurring theme throughout the history of the police has never been truer. I seem to have had a similar career path to Dom, albeit about 15 years earlier, when the Met was much closer to Dixon of Dock Green and The Sweeny than it is today. Roughly equal parts uniform /CID, gaining a first degree and a Master's by distance learning on the way. Spending the majority, 25 years, as a PS/DS, with a long stint in complaints and discipline (Area Complaints, CIB2, CIB3 Financial Investigation Unit), then SO12 National Terrorist Financial Investigation Unit, transitioning into Counter Terrorist Command, SO15). The last part of my career was having a prominent role in the investigation of the London bombings of 7/7 & 21/7, and even more so in the prevention of massive loss of life in the Liquid Bomb Airlines Conspiracy of 2006, saving between 3,000 and 4,000 lives, after which I retired, in 2007 to form my own AML/CFT Consultancy. The work of the police service in general, and the Met in particular, was exceptional during both of those events, and the stock of police officers had never, I think, been higher. The same could be said during the wave of knife and lorry attacks of more recent times, when the raw bravery of Met officers, including PaPD's Keith Palmer, was the talk of the town. Yet a few short years later (well 16, actually, but it's passed in a flash), we find ourselves with a very different scenario. I believe that the causes Dom lists are an accurate reflection of the truth. The successes I mention above happened, it seemed to me, in spite of the system, not because of it. I may be wrong, but the SIOs that led these successes seemed to me to be those who got their via the coalface, not the classroom . On the other hand, in the Anti-corruption Command, an essential in the greasy pole -race, there were some proper cock-ups, masterminded by aforementioned box-tickers. I don't have any magic solutions, but a return to getting real experience in Command roles, rather than fleeting periods of box filling.
Well written piece. Picking up on your comments about Sergeants and Inspectors... You're absolutely right and, if the powers that be are looking for effective reform, there is a huge cadre of retired Skippers and Guvnors who would jump at the chance of putting right all the wrongs perpetrated by senior officers under the banner of efficiency and promotion-hunting.
The NCA crest is apparently a purple griffin representing relentless pursuit and the disco leopard is supposed to represent the different capabilities
Spot on again. The Met is in need of a complete overhaul. How about a review/inquiry by someone who actually did the job? I’d like to see John Stevens have a go
I read the section about NCA/SO15 with interest. It would be interesting to see the reaction of MI5 to sweet whispers and promises from the NCA that they no longer need Plod to deal with terrorism. It would be the perfect answer to what SO13 did to Special Branch in 2005/06. SB not having attended the same mainly private schools and universities as senior members of the Civil Service and MI5 were knifed in the back by MI5. I believe Schadenfreude is the required word in this space.
Another well written piece.
Couzens & Carrick deserve to be buried under Belmarsh. The the outrage at their crimes is wholly justifiable. Public servants that have totally nuked any remaining vestiges of trust.
So I’ll leave these names here as I ask - what of the NHS? This great & venerable institution?
Dr Harold Shipman
Dr Manish Shah
Beverley Allit
Lucy Letby & not forgetting David Fuller.
And yet the media clamour & coverage feels & is different around these cases - cases where positions of authority &/or trust were abused again & again.
It is interesting to me that the Met have had two absolute villains and there are rightly searching questions to be asked. It’s a pity this doesn’t equally apply to other public services….
Personally, I don’t recognise your comment about PADP and flyers, but although I was (at twenty years service!) a “flyer”, I never was in PADP so I shall not show my ignorance but challenging that.
However, as a retired officer it strikes me as strange that the NHS are not subject to equal opprobrium and scrutiny. As a former SLT member I was never allowed to give ‘lack of resources’ as an excuse for poor performance in the bad old days of Bernie Two-Dads. Ever. That is the excuse frequently asserted by the NHS management to sympathetic press coverage and public demand that they be increased.
And so far as I am aware the Police hasn’t harboured within their ranks AT LEAST two (Shipman, Allitt) serial killers and maybe more… The NHS has, and where are or were the loud demands for their toxic culture of death to be challenged?
I agree 'big changes' are necessary, though I cannot from outside London see what they should be. From afar it seems that the move to area makes borough-based policing even harder to return to if "breaking up" the Met is pursued.
As the stones fly against the "greenhouse" the Met finds itself in, does it really make any sense to pull down the "greenhouse" and rebuild it as a series of igloos? Borough-based policing would have been an option, stop screaming Dom, instead the Met has non-borough based areas. Would any local authority want to have police governance added to them? No.