A scandal foretold

Unsurprisingly, it prompted an urgent question in the House of Commons on 3 November.

Commissioned after the murder of Sarah Everard by a serving police officer, the Inspectorate report exposes lax recruitment and integrity checks on a scale that may well give rise to alarm.

However, what is really new about the report? As the report notes, the Inspectorate have been pointing out a problem for a number of years.

Unfortunately, these recent cases are an indication of longer-standing problems. An examination of police misconduct-related matters in the last decade points to some systemic failings, missed opportunities and a generally inadequate approach to the setting and maintenance of standards in parts of the police service.

The report also makes clear that, not only have the problems been identified over several years, they have also been the subject of discussions and recommendations by various national bodies, such as the National Police Chiefs Council and the College of Policing, evidently with insufficient effect.

What is at stake here is a failure of police governance. Unless the governance bodies act on inspection findings, there can be little assurance that they will be given the weight that they deserve.

It is regrettable that only three of the 43 recommendations request action from the Home Office and none mention the Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs). Many local observers will be asking when PCCs will be raising the issues in the report with their Chief Constables, and no doubt some will be fully entitled to press their PCC to consider whether their Chief Constable should take individual responsibility for these failings.

In one form or another, inspection has been a longstanding feature of accountability arrangements, as we described in our report on criminal justice systems across the UK.

However, the scope and powers of inspection should be urgently reassessed by all in the governance chain, including parliamentarians, as fundamental questions about the purpose of the police are growing in public discourse.

The Inspectorate report adds to the severe questions about the police’s role in tackling violence against women and girls. The intrusive reach of the police into the lives of racially defined communities also solidifies the perception that they are inherently prone to protect existing social arrangements.

As the police are seen to become more visibly involved in sensitive and complex problems, such as domestic abuse and mental health, the expectations on them will rise, calling for even greater changes to policy, practices and attitudes.

In addition to fairness, values such as integrity, humanity and compassion should be at the heart of all public institutions. It is vital that those values are clearly delineated in policies and practices of the police and fully reflected in the recruitment and training of police.

It is crucial that the report on vetting is acted on, but the lessons of these ongoing scandals go further.

There must be a debate about the structural adequacy of the institutions that purportedly hold the police to account. Equally, pressing questions surrounding the fundamental qualities required of police and the nature of their public mission have to be posed.