London’s police force has redeployed anti-terror officers to help monitor alleged misconduct, including racism and sexism, within the force.
Officers previously fighting serious crime and terrorism within London’s Metropolitan Police (Met) have been pulled from their operations in order to help clean up alleged misconduct within their own force.
A recent review branded the force as being institutionally racist, sexist and homophobic.
According to a report by The Telegraph, the force’s Commissioner Mark Rowley has decided to redeploy officers working within departments dealing with terrorism and serious organised crime to help eradicate misconduct within the organisation, with a recent database search of officers finding that roughly one in 200 within the force have previous adult convictions.
Overall, a total of 90 officers and members of staff will be moved from counter-terror and anti-crime operations to the internal cleanup.
“We have taken this decision because we cannot succeed in any policing mission unless we resolve these issues as urgently as possible,” the Commissioner stated, vowing to crack down on suspect officers even if it meant disrupting policing in London.
Such an approach has greatly worried some in the country, with Lord Alex Carlile — a former independent reviewer of terrorism in Britain — saying that such a measure risks frontline operations.
“I am very concerned that at a time when the terrorism threat remains very significant that officers should be withdrawn from counter-terrorism policing to deal with the cupboard full of dirty linen,” Carlile said regarding the cleanup, which he said should be done using resources external to the Met instead.
UK’s Top Police Force No Longer Trusted by the General Public – Reporthttps://t.co/K4VCHgbZlT
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) March 21, 2023
The planned purge of the Met comes shortly after a number of officers were convicted of raping women while actively serving in the force, resulting in a massive drop in public trust within the organisation.
It also coincides however with promises made by senior officers to root out “racism” within the force, with Rowley vowing to fire racist officers after offensive memes from one private WhatsApp group containing Met officers leaked online.
One former member of the force was even arrested over such offensive memes, which the Met denounced as being “vile and deplorable”.
“I will be ruthless in rooting out those corrupting officers and staff, including racists and misogynists, from our organisation,” vowed Rowley in the wake of the scandal.
Police officers caught sharing edgy material online risk more than just a fine and losing their jobs, with one now-former member of a different police force in the country being thrown in jail for meming about George Floyd.
James Watts was sentenced to 20 weeks in prison after being convicted of “10 counts of sending a grossly offensive or menacing message by a public communication network” over allegedly posting “racist WhatsApp memes mocking the death of George Floyd”.
By contrast, another officer who was found guilty of both making and possessing indecent images of children was handed a mere suspended sentence for his crimes.
A now-former British police officer has been spared prison after being convicted for making and possessing indecent images of children, mere weeks after another ex-cop was locked up for sharing George Floyd memes https://t.co/28GPeOlkDd
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) October 16, 2022
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