[MostUncivilised]

I just had the "pleasure" of reading another article about the Metropolitan Police Service declaring that, after investigating themselves, they've concluded that they are in fact as blameless as a newborn baby. No incriminating documents turned up in the files of officers who were expecting a search; the Met has concluded that "no evidence" means we can rest easy. (Apologies in advance for the length; hope you don't TLDR it)

They might well be right, but it's a timely reminder of the lack of meaningful oversight over the Met on misconduct/corruption issues. You have Met officers, including members of the anti-corruption squad, being arrested left, right and centre for taking bribes and leaking sensitive information. You have investigations being nobbled, profound miscarriages of justice, members of the public regularly being physically assaulted (and sometimes shot) by MPS officers and officers refusing to give evidence to the IPCC and answer its questions in the Mark Duggan review.

This all comes at the same time as the leak from SOCA disclosing the existence of a secret report detailing the activities of a group of Scotland Yard detectives who have been obtaining and deleting information from the central police database at the behest of organised crime syndicates, and being paid via private security firms (just like the News Int bribes). I imagine that someone at SOCA leaked it because they know that the IPCC couldn't do anything even if it wanted to, and Met internal affairs is hardly going to carry out an investigation that implicitly admits that they have no idea what's going on in the organisation.

The Met has failed to a considerable degree to meet its core responsibilities of the maintenance of public order and the investigation of crime. One of the largest and best equipped police forces in the world stood by for three days whilst huge areas of the capital become completely lawless and witnessed a total breakdown in security. In terms of the latter responsibility, I struggle to think of an investigation that the Met did that was notably well-done; what does come to mind is Sam Hallam, Stephen Lawrence, the abject and inexplicable failure of the original phone hacking probe, the wreck of an investigation that was the Cash for Peerages case, etc etc.

In terms of having a credible and robust capacity for investigation, the MPS might start by thinking about trying to staff their anti-corruption squad with officers who don't take bribes.

So... It appears axiomatic (and indeed is accepted as such in most comparable jurisdictions) that no government organisation can reasonably be expected to navigate the conflicts of interest inherent when investigating yourself (to put it politely). The MPS would say that they are overseen by their Internal Affairs department (chortle), the IPCC (with whom they refuse to co-operate, and which has no real power to compel their co-operation) and by parliament. The first two are next to useless for meaningful investigation of corruption and misconduct in the MPS, and parliament has neither the time nor the inclination to address every Met scandal and corruption case. The IPCC is the kind of milquetoast organisation suited dealing with a complaint about being treated rudely when you were arrested, not to investigating the existence of groups of entrenched, corrupt officers inside the MPS and providing a serious and credible oversight body.

It is time to introduce an independent body to oversee serious police misconduct; one with a mandate and teeth and an aggressive chief exec. My ideal would be the NSW-model Police Integrity Commission; very broad coercive powers to compel individuals to attend the commission when summonsed for an examination, to produce any document, to prevent individuals from disclosing they've been summonsed or attended an examination at the Commission, that it's an imprisonable offence to fail to attend a summons or to lie to or mislead the commission, that they can enter any police facility or vehicle at any time and they can self-certify a warrant for electronic surveillance or telephone intercepts. The other important characteristic is that it would not be staffed by any current or former police officer of the Metropolitan Police Service.

Imagine how much more could be discovered about corruption / misconduct of MPS officers in their dealings with News Int if it were an aggressive, well-resourced external watchdog conducting the investigation rather than someone who fears that it will explode in their face at any moment (and a grand irony... the officer in charge of the phone hacking probe from November 2011 is Cressida Dick, best known for commanding the teams of armed police who shot an innocent man on the tube, and then claimed all the CCTV cameras were malfunctioning... someone with that kind of baggage is the perfect choice for such a sensitive investigation)

The PIC-model might seem like a star chamber, but corrupt police officers are exceptionally resistant to normal techniques of investigation. They are trained and experienced in criminal investigations, they are knowledgeable about the law and they are protected by a very strong union and a very risk-averse senior management. Experience with other corruption scandals and inquiries in other countries shows us that even where fellow officers are not involved in corruption, they can still be relied upon not to break the wall of silence and to back up their colleague. Senior officers don't want a corruption scandal appearing under their watch, and are also very attached to the belief that allowing them to be properly aired would cause a "loss of confidence" in the service.

The litany of misconduct and incompetence coming from the MPS over the last year has underlined the urgency of this issue; it's well worth looking into it and getting in contact with your MP and police commissioner candidates to express your opinion.

[Coursework.info]

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