Ex-Police Scotland chief Stephen House admits Met problems 'not just few bad apples like Wayne Couzens'
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Giving evidence to the Home Affairs Select Committee, Sir Stephen, who is temporarily leading Britain’s largest police force, said there are efforts to root out unacceptable behaviour “as fast as possible”.
The Met has faced a series of damaging scandals, including the murder of Sarah Everard by serving officer Wayne Couzens, offensive messages exchanged by a team at Charing Cross, and the strip-search of a teenage girl at school while she was menstruating.
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Hide AdSir Stephen, who previously led Police Scotland, said: “There is a significant campaign within the organisation to deal with this completely unacceptable behaviour, to root it out and to exit those people who are exhibiting that behaviour from the organisation as fast as possible and in the right way.”
Asked if it is “just a few people”, he replied: “People have talked about a few bad apples, quite clearly that’s not the situation at all, it’s not a few bad apples.
“You can’t simply say that Wayne Couzens and a couple of other people have done something wrong – that’s been the spearhead of the problem, I would suggest, but there is a wider issue within the organisation which we acknowledge and we are dealing with.”
Sir Stephen is temporarily leading the Met until a permanent replacement is appointed in the summer, after his predecessor, Dame Cressida Dick, quit her job amid a face-off with London Mayor Sadiq Khan.
Police forces in England and Wales are trying to recruit 20,000 officers by next year to replace jobs cut during austerity measures.
Sir Stephen said he is now “less confident” that the Met will meet its targets, with the force needing to attract 40,000 applicants in the next year to replace officers who leave as well as attracting 1,800 new starters.
A strategic review of policing last month suggested that officers should have to hold licences that would be renewed every five years.
Sir Stephen said he would “not be opposed” to a scheme similar to that used for doctors.
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Hide AdBut Assistant Commissioner Louisa Rolfe, who also gave evidence on Wednesday, stressed that it should not “become a bureaucratic exercise in and of itself”.