ALL police forces ordered to search for sexual predators and domestic abusers in their ranks

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will meet with Metropolitan Police commissioner Sir Mark Rowley, after serial rapist David Carrick’s crimes have sparked strengthened efforts to clean out the UK forces.

Every police force has received orders to sift out sexual predators and domestic abusers within their ranks in a major review in the wake of the horrific crimes committed by Met Police officer, David Carrick.

It comes after the Met Police ran a check which revealed more than 1,000 serving officers and staff for the force had complaints filed against them spanning over a decade.

The National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) is writing to all forces in England and Wales to check against national police databases to identify officers and staff who may have ‘slipped through the net’ before vetting standards were toughened.

Carrick, 48, admitted to 49 criminal charges, including 24 counts of rape against 12 women while serving with the force between 2003 and 2020. He was known to his colleagues as ‘B**tard Dave’

Speaking at Prime Minister’s Questions in the House of Commons on Wednesday, January 18th, Mr Sunak said: “I know members from across the House will be as shocked and as appalled as I am about the case of David Carrick. 

“The abuse of power is truly sickening and our thoughts are with his victims. The police must address the failings in this case, restore public confidence and ensure the safety of women and girls. 

“There will be no place to hide for those who use their position to intimidate those women and girls, or those who have failed to act, reprimand or remove those people from office.”

The Home Secretary Suella Braverman has also asked the College of Policing to strengthen the statutory code of practice for police vetting, making the obligations all forces must legally follow stricter and clearer, saying: “Carrick’s sickening crimes are a stain on the police and he should never have been allowed to remain as an officer for so long.

“We are taking immediate steps to ensure predatory individuals are not only rooted out of the force, but that vetting and standards are strengthened to ensure they cannot join the police in the first place.

“I want to make sure we have a fair and effective system of removing those officers who are simply not fit to serve.”

A Home Office review will question whether processes around recruitment and vetting do enough to identify those who are not fit to serve, investigate the extent of ‘misogynistic and predatory behaviour’ in police culture and ensure those who fall short of standards can be sacked.