Met’s hunt for new boss gathers pace
THE Met Police is continuing to root out “bad apples” in a bid to clean up the force as the search for a new commissioner enters its final stages.
New Scotland Yard faced more negative headlines after being placed in “special measures” last week amid a flurry of misconduct hearings.
On Tuesday it emerged that the police watchdog, Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary, had put the Met under its engage process, which means it is subject to heightened scrutiny and has to produce a plan to tackle several failings, a process likened to special measures by Home Secretary Priti Patel.
The force has been without a commissioner since Dame Cressida Dick stepped down in April after a string of scandals, including the murder of Sarah Everard by serving officer Wayne Couzens – and there are now calls for someone with an exmilitary background or from an overseas force to take over.
In the meantime, the Met is dealing with a string of misconduct cases.
Two Met Police officers were sacked last week for making “abhorrent” comments in a group chat, including a racist joke about the Duchess of
Sussex. PC Sukhdev Jeer and PC Paul Hefford, who worked at Bethnal Green in east London, posted the messages in 2018.
Also last week, PC Inga Gherghel was dismissed after a major corruption probe. A misconduct hearing found she turned a blind eye to her husband, who was not a police officer, having £10,000 in a shoe box and a Met Police uniform in their house.
The panel heard in 2020 that Ioan, 35, had been posing as a police officer to help real bent officer Kashif Mahmood, 33, carry out fake stops on drug dealers to steal their cash.
Mahmood and Gherghel were jailed with others involved in the thefts. Earlier this month, former Met DC Lee Putnam learned he would have been sacked had he not resigned after a drink-driving conviction. He had drunk more than eight pints.
Over the coming weeks further misconduct hearings include a force commander accused of using cannabis then refusing to take a drugs test, and an officer accused of inviting a woman back to his home then preventing her leaving and suggesting he would sexually assault her.
Other upcoming cases concern officers who have been convicted of fraud and assaults or those accused of unauthorised police checks, inappropriate use of force and discriminatory language.
A senior Met source said: “There have been a lot of misconduct cases this year but the Department of Professional Standards has taken action in response to recent events and this could be the result of that, so we are likely to see more of these as bad apples are identified.”
Meanwhile, the search for a new commissioner is entering its closing stage but the winner of the £292,938-a-year post faces the challenge of “rebooting” relations with the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, whose loss of confidence in Ms Dick forced her resignation in February.
Final interviews are due to take place in the next two weeks. Current favourites include Nick Ephgrave, who is Assistant Commissioner of the Met, and Sir Mark Rowley, former Assistant Commissioner for Specialist Operations.
Rick Muir, director of the Police Foundation think-tank, warned that relations between Scotland Yard and City Hall are in a “really bad state” and have “broken down politically”.
Former Conservative mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey said: “The challenge for the commissioner will be to have any relationship with the mayor. Rank and file officers don’t believe that the mayor, politically, is on their side.”
Former Cabinet minister Andrew Mitchell said: “We should look outside the police ranks for someone with exceptional leadership skills. This is most likely to be found at the very top of the British army.”
But former Labour policing minister David Hanson said: “It’s important for any Commissioner to understand fully the UK policing role and, in my view, to have worked through the ranks.”