A crack team of Metropolitan Police detectives have been taken away from fighting serious criminality and terrorists to focus on internal issues with rogue officers.

Law-breakers
The newly-appointed Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley confirmed 90 officers were moved away from their day-to-day duties to look into the force’s issues of law-breaking, domestic abuse, racism and sexual abuse and misconduct.

Sir Mark has indicated the number of offices who face the chop will amount to many hundreds.

But it will also shine a light on the Met’s own vetting processes and policies on dealing with wrong-doers.

The recent Baroness Louise Casey report has withering conclusions about the Met’s ability to police itself.
It was and is institutionally racist, homophobic and misogynistic, Casey said.

Incensed
The commissioner informed the Home Secretary of his intention to set up the team (called the Directorate of Professional Standards (DPS)) who would carry out the biggest internal purge since the 1970s.

Sir Mark was said to be incensed when he learnt 80% of officers accused of domestic or sexual abuse were not properly dealt with.

In his conclusions, he declared: “Not only have we increased our DPS by 150 people, but the scale and urgency of this work has meant diverting officers from other missions such as serious and organised crime and counter-terrorism.

“Over the last three months we have had, on average, 90 additional officers and staff from these areas supporting DPS. Many had volunteered.”

Almost 1,000 Met officers face re-examination and all cases will be adjudicated by an independent panel of experts.

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