The National Police Chiefs' Council is to ask all forces to check their officers against national police databases to help identify anyone who has "slipped through the net" before vetting standards were toughened, in the wake of the David Carrick rape case. Home Secretary Suella Braverman has also asked the College of Policing to strengthen the statutory code of practice for police vetting, making the obligations all forces must legally follow stricter and clearer.
In a statement, she said: "David Carrick's sickening crimes are a stain on the police and he should never have been allowed to remain as an officer for so long. We are taking immediate steps to ensure predatory individuals are not only rooted out of the force, but that vetting and standards are strengthened to ensure they cannot join the police in the first place. Every day thousands of decent, hardworking police officers perform their duties with the utmost professionalism and I am sure they all share my disgust at his despicable betrayal of everything they stand for."
Speaking at Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday, Rishi Sunak told MPs that Carrick's crimes were a "truly sickening" abuse of power and promised police reforms so offenders would have "no place to hide". Mr Sunak will meet Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley later on Wednesday, the Home Office said.
Serving Met Police office Carrick, 48, was an armed officer in the Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command and earlier this week admitted four counts of rape, false imprisonment and indecent assault relating to a 40-year-old woman in 2003, at Southwark Crown Court on Monday. Carrick had already pleaded guilty to 43 charges, including 20 counts of rape, in December.
