Hundreds of police officers in London will be sacked as unfit to serve the public if the Home Office changes the law to give Scotland Yard the power to dismiss them, the Met Commissioner said today.
Sir Mark Rowley told the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee he was “already suspending and sacking more officers” in an attempt to clean up his force in the wake of the scandals which triggered the departure of predecessor Dame Cressida Dick.
But he said the role of independent legal professionals in chairing disciplinary panels was preventing him from dismissing racist, misogynist or corrupt officers. Sir Mark said he believed Home Secretary Suella Braverman was alert to the problem and he would deepen his purge as soon as legal changes were made to give his force the final say in who should be sacked.
“I’ve got hundreds of people who shouldn’t be with me,” he said. “The people who are getting off [with dismissal] are largely white men who are behaving badly towards to black and female colleagues.
“We have police officers who have gained serious criminal convictions whilst police officers, who we can’t sack, and we are having to put restrictions on them to limit the damage they can do...the responsibility for who is a police officer in London in terms of removing them, the final word doesn’t sit with me, it sits with independent legal tribunals who don’t have the same interest in the quality of policing in London that I do. That’s a very unusual situation. “
Sir Mark added: “The Home Secretary seems persuaded by the principle of the argument and is looking at whether any fast-time changes to regulations can be made. If I was the chief executive of John Lewis I’d be able to decide who my team were.” He said inadequate leadership was one reason for the unacceptable culture in “pockets” of the Met.
