Met officers are lodging complaints against bosses as 'smokescreen'

Met police officers facing misconduct action are lodging complaints against their bosses as smokescreen to dodge punishment, commissioner says

• Sir Mark Rowley said force chiefs will review internal disciplinary procedures
• Sir Mar outlined action the force has taken 100 days on from a savage review

Police officers facing action over misconduct are lodging grievances against bosses as a smokescreen to avoid punishment, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner has said.

Sir Mark Rowley appeared before the London Assembly Police and Crime Committee on Wednesday to outline action the force has taken 100 days on from a savage review that found the force is institutionally racist, misogynist and homophobic.

He said that force chiefs are looking at ways to review internal disciplinary procedures so that they cannot be abused.

The Met Police chief told the committee: ‘As leaders get more assertive on standards, some of those who are breaching standards are trying to use the grievance procedure and the misconduct procedure to weaponise that back against the leaders who are confronting them.

‘There are some battle lines being drawn and we’re looking at how those procedures work because they need to work in a way which you mustn’t license bullying, but mustn’t enable those guilty of poor conduct to throw up a smokescreen by undermining leaders by creating some bureaucratic grievance or misconduct process.

Sir Mark Rowley appeared before the London Assembly Police and Crime Committee on Wednesday to outline action the force has taken 100 days since a review finding the force institutionally racist, misogynist and homophobic

Sir Mark vowed to clean up the Met in the wake of a series of scandals including the murder of Sarah Everard by a serving officer, and PC David Carrick (pictured) being unmasked as a serial rapist

‘I don’t think that balance is right. I do see evidence of some of the people who are rightly being taken on pushing back, and we will find a way through that.’

Sir Mark vowed to clean up the Met in the wake of a series of scandals including the murder of Sarah Everard by a serving officer, and PC David Carrick being unmasked as a serial rapist.

In January Carrick admitted a string of offences including 24 counts of rape against 12 women over an 18-year period.

Following the case, Sir Mark said he believed there were hundreds of officers and staff working for the Met who should have been kicked out.

It also sparked a review of 1,000 files where officers and staff had been accused of domestic abuse or sexual offences but no further action was taken, to make sure that the right decision had been made.

Sir Mark warned that two or three officers could appear in court each week as the force attempted to reform.

He has also called for internal disciplinary procedures to be reformed to make it easier to remove officers found to have committed misconduct.

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