How can we trust the Police?

[icelolly12]

From the Daily Mail:

Other comments and content shared in the group referred to disabled people as 'mgs', travellers as 'ps' and people of east Asian heritage as 'c*s'.

Mr Hobbs further detailed comments Thomas made about Officer A, a junior female officer who was assigned to their team for a period of time, calling her 'f ugly'.

In a separate conversation, Thomas suggested to the WhatsApp group that he name his dog 'Auschwitz', 'Adolf' or 'Fred' or 'Ian' after 'my two favourite child sex killers'.

Elsewhere, Thomas referred to a black Police Sergeant being disciplined as 'the biggest threat of him ending up back in chains,' the hearing was told.

Referring to a 'blind man' who once boarded a train he was on, former Police Thomas wrote in the chat: 'Poor c*t I hate the thought of being blind. I would prefer being in a m*g scooter for the rest of my life.'Mr Hobbs explained that what Thomas meant in his reference to a 'm*g scooter' was a wheelchair."

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11776595/Met-police-sergeant-racist-jokes-Katie-Prices-disabled-son-Harvey.html

How many misogynistic nasty power wielding Police are out there? I feel sick reading some of that article.

I lost all trust & respect of the police after my late dp was assaulted by my neighbours & the policeman just said it was the law of the jungle where we lived & did anything he could to persuade him to not make a complaint.

The way things are going for me in the Met area @Felix125 means the police will be spending a lot of time investigating their fellow officers. That's what Sir Mark Rowley, the newest Met Commissioner said when he announced the re-opening of inquiries into about 1,000 police and support staff previously cleared by their mates in the force.

Do you think this will give them enough time for their day job investigating things that happen to ordinary citizens or do you think we should fend for ourselves in the meantime? BTW, my local copshop is Charing Cross. If I'd been raped I'd think twice about reporting it there.

Do you wonder, as I do, how it will be possible to vet those investigating officers to ensure they don't hold the same views as those who are being looked at?

Do you think there might be some way of ensuring at least some of these people should not have been recruited in the first place and should have been pursued by the police as offenders?

What about all of the police officers who called their colleague 'the rapist' where do they figure into your stats?

What about the racism? The Met police use restraints five times as often on black people compared to white people, they make up 12% of police altercations where the police use force despite being 3.3% of the population. POC are twice as likely as white people to die during or immediately after contact with the police. Black people are 8 times more likely to be stopped and searched

The Met police strip searched 650 children over two years, the appropriate adult was often absent and the children were often innocent and suprise suprise 58% of the children were black, again despite only 3.3% of the population being black. in 2018 75% of children strip searched were black.

Meanwhile police officers who are black or POC speak out about the racism they face from their colleague.

low number my arse

so what would your estimate on the number be?

And i agree - anyone facilitating this should go.

Met police probably around 90% to be honest

Other forces I'm not so sure about

The proof would be the incidents of criminal/bad behaviour over the total number of cops. I would say it was a relatively low figure still

The latest Met Commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, does not appear to agree with you @Felix125. He has ordered a reinvestigation of almost 1,000 cases of alleged criminal activity of police officers and support staff who were previously cleared with the clear implication that some opportunities for criminal convictions were missed. That would put the incidence of criminal activity - let's call it what it is, not "bad behaviour" - higher, wouldn't it?

Do you agree with Sir Mark Rowley, Britain's Top Cop, or is there something you know that he doesn't?

I gather that number is just for violence against women and girls. As I'm sure you know there are many other forms of criminal activity people get up to. I wonder how the Met will get round to it all. I bet there's plenty of overtime in it.

I'm going to get off because MN is fecking about when I type a message out. I had typed some things that are now lost into the ethereal rooms of mumsnet. Is it just me? Is it my phone? It's like going back to signing into windows, (didn't matter what you wrote.... it was always going to beast us.) 🤣

In the meantime Man Or Woman or Woman or Man....please stay safe.

Don't end up on your own!!!!

Hugs to everyone xxxxx🫂

When is say 'bad behavior' - I would mean things such as wearing pin badges (Ukraine etc), aligning yourself to a charity at work - that kind of thing

Of course criminal activity stands out alone

And hence cops guilty of bad behaviour or criminal activity should be gotten rid of

Yes - i would agree with Sir Mark. But how about the rest of the country's police forces?

It doesn’t matter on the exact number. It matters that there is a culture which is allowing them to not only get away with it but accepts and protects them as well, and in some cases rewards them.

Although the Charing Cross scandal shows it’s not a low number. 14 police officers from one station. Even if every other police officer in that station was an angel, and somehow knew nothing about what these officers were like, it’s still a good % isn’t it.

I'm not sure why you are set on us coming up with a number of how many police officers we think are 'bad'

Some, a lot, of posters on this thread and a lot of people in real life are having real issues trusting the police. Its not a new thing, but I do think it's getting to be a bigger thing because of all the recent scandals

So it doesn't matter what the number is. If the public or a large percentage of the public have lost faith and trust in the police in general then its not for us to come up with a number of how many officers we think are corrupt to support that. It's for the police forces to regain our trust through the stamping out of the corrupt behaviour no matter what number of officers that may be

Yes - i would agree with Sir Mark. But how about the rest of the country's police forces?

@Felix125 as I have said, people should not fool themselves that the only criminal police officers wear the Met uniform.

But to avoid distracting whataboutery I'd like to stick to the Met and Sir Mark Rowley for the moment if you don't mind.

Do you believe his statement that there is a significant number of officers he would like to sack but can't?

The most senior police officer in the UK has said many of his staff are not fit to wear the uniform. Not just a few bad apples but a lot of them. So why do you insist that it's just a few people and the public should blindly trust the vast majority of officers?

Sir Mark disagrees with you. Was he mistaken when he told us that? Should we believe you instead? Why? Is there something you know that he doesn't? Do you think you should apply for his job?

Yes - I agree - the Met has serious problems

I am asking if this is reflective of other police forces too?

it can't be 100% - as i am certainly not criminal or engage in any activity which would be considered as 'bad behaviour'. Like I say no pin badges, no charity alignments etc etc

I'm not sure where this stuff about pin badges you keep bringing up comes from

Police officers can wear all the pin badges for the Ukraine they like, it's the rest of it we actually care about

do you honestly think parents of black sons having to explain to them how to react if they get stopped and searched multiple times unfairly, to make sure they react in a way that's not going to provoke violence are also saying 'and look out for the ones with pin badges they are the real bad guys'

Not wearing a pin badge isn't what makes you 'not a bad guy'

Yes - I agree - the Met has serious problems. I am asking if this is reflective of other police forces too?

@Felix125 I'm not a detective but I would say the circumstantial evidence looks quite compelling. Wouldn't you?

I'm not sure we can keep pretending there isn't an issue with the police in this country.

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/feb/25/revealed-one-in-100-uk-police-officers-faced-a-criminal-charge-last-year

ConfusedNT

What i am trying to get at is that wearing such things goes against the rules. And if we start allowing police to break some rules, it becomes an avalanche.

We should be professional and not be able to break rules - no matter what they are. if we start at the 'lower end' of rule breaking then we have a chance to stop the 'upper end'

Its not going to be perfect and it wont stop people who are hell bent on being criminal - but its a start of making a more professional service with officers who don't break rules.

We shouldn't be wearing pin badges are they are political - and the police should not align themselves to politics. Same with charity badges, poppies etc as they align to one specific organisation.

Stop & search - I agree with you and the rules have been bent for too many years. If done correctly, they should be hardly any stop searches being done due to the procedures being followed - but the public should accept that too

For example - if you see a group of youths at the end of the street and one has a knife, but you don't know who - I have no authority to stop search any of them

Well know thief walking down your road with a large item under his jacket - can't be stop searched just based on that.

kirinm

Yes - but that's only 1% then
I would suggest its higher that that

After today's news it's clear this isn't just a Met issue.

It's not and I don't understand people who insisted it was. They might be the same people who go on threads to say how horrid London is while being blind to the disagreeable aspects of their own part of the country.