The headlines, from the Times and the Mail to the Sun and the Guardian, all announce that the Metropolitan police – Britain’s biggest force, and progenitor of the mantra that we have the “best police in the world” – has been placed in “special measures”. Much like “institutionally racist” and “not fit for purpose”, the phrase has a formal ring to it. But what does it actually mean?
Earlier this year a former Met officer, Iain Donnelly, published a book about his time in the police entitled Tango Juliet Foxtrot, a title making use of the phonetic alphabet that translates as “the job’s fucked”. That sums up both what many serving officers currently feel and what Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary has just concluded.
