Met told to ‘improve’ in HMIC report
METROPOLITAN Police has been rated as ‘ good’ but told it must start treating abuse of authority for sexual gain as ‘serious corruption’.
In HMIC’s (Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary) PEEL (police effectiveness, efficiency and legitimacy) 2016 report, the force was praised for how it is ‘working hard’ to ensure it ‘treats all the people it serves, and its workforce, with fairness and respect’.
The report has not identified any ‘causes of concern’ and has not made specific recommendations.
It adds that the force understands the ‘importance’ of treating people with fairness and respect, but the report details a number of ‘areas for improvement’.
Under areas for improvement, the report says: “The force should improve how it clarifies and reinforces standards of behaviour to its workforce, particularly with regard to the abuse of authority for sexual gain, which should be recognised as a form of serious corruption.”
The report adds: “The force recognises the abuse of authority for sexual gain as serious misconduct, as opposed to serious corruption, and does not have a counter-corruption strategic risk assessment or a control strategy.
“Further, the force does not actively seek intelligence on corrupt activities.
“The Metropolitan Police Service is good in how it treats its workforce with fairness and respect.
“It uses a range of methods to identify and understand the areas affecting workforce perceptions of fair and respectful treatment.”
Commenting on the report, Chief TJG1ST Superintendent Matt Gardner, directorate of professional standards, said: “We accept the findings of the HMIC report regarding our anticorruption prevention work and note that the HMIC has not identified any causes for concern and has therefore made no specific recommendations but has, however, indicated some areas for improvement.
“We acknowledge that, whilst our anti-corruption investigations are of a high standard, something the HMIC recognised themselves in last year’s PEEL assessment, there is always more work that can be done. We are developing ways to take this forward but it is indeed a challenge within our current resource levels as these are necessarily prioritised towards investigation of current intelligence and allegations.”