At least 2,000 police officers in England and Wales face losing their jobs under government plans to overhaul the misconduct system, Home Office sources have confirmed.
Ministers will make dismissing failing or disgraced officers easier after police chiefs including the Met commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, said the present system was “bizarre and over-regulated”.
At present, officers who fail to maintain their vetting status can continue to work, but under the proposals they will face automatic dismissal.
The proposals could lead to misconduct panels being chaired by chief constables rather than independent legally qualified chairmen and women, whom police chiefs have accused of being too lenient. The system can lead to officers being sacked for serious misconduct only to be reinstated on appeal.
Power could be transferred to chief constables, enabling them to root out officers whose standards fall short or bring shame on the organisation, under changes the Home Office is expected to announce.
The home secretary, Suella Braverman, and the crime and policing minister, Chris Philp, are said to be working on the overhaul, which the Home Office is expected to announce in the coming weeks.
Police forces are trying to regain public trust after scandals including the murder of Sarah Everard by Wayne Couzens, a Metropolitan police officer, and the case of David Carrick, a firearms officer jailed this year for more than 80 sexual offences.
They are two cases among many to have cast doubt on the effectiveness of the misconduct system and exposed weakness in the vetting process.
Rowley has said “well over 500” Met officers are on restricted duties and that several hundred are suspended. If the new disciplinary process comes into force it is thought that it could result in more than 2,000 officers across England and Wales losing their jobs.
In January, the Home Office ordered a review into the effectiveness of removing officers deemed unfit to serve after the “atrocious behaviour” of Carrick. He was jailed for a minimum of 30 years after admitting more than 80 sexual offences, including 48 rapes, during his two decades in the force.
Rowley, who took charge of the Met last September, has called for an overhaul of the disciplinary system and said Braverman had been “really helpful” after he identified weaknesses in police regulations.
“We’ve been too weak, too forgiving of standards that in any sensible organisation would say: ‘That’s a red card, you’re gone’ – and we haven’t done that,” he said recently.
“Cops aren’t subject to normal employment law. There’s this whole framework of police regulations and changes over the last decade that mean those decisions aren’t always taken by a chief constable, or in my case, commissioner.
“We’ve got people who have committed serious criminal offences who we’ve sacked and they’ve been reimposed – they wouldn’t pass vetting. It’s completely crazy.”
A Home Office spokesperson said: “Officers who fall seriously short of the standards expected have no place in our police and we must ensure they can be dismissed as swiftly as possible.
“Culture and standards in policing must improve. This review is part of our common-sense policing approach that priorities fighting crime and putting the public first, ahead of heedless bureaucracy.”
