@DriftingDora the vetting is there, trust me. In fact everyone in the police, certainly UK has recently been re-vetted, and previous misdemeanours reviewed. Some officers have been thrown out through this.
There’s a couple of things to consider: sexual offences, domestic abuse and paedophiles are all around us, invisible, in the public population. It takes an average of 37 incidents before someone reports domestic abuse. There will be more who never report, so we don’t know. The paedophile will be your child’s dad, or clarinet teacher, or football coach, not the weird old man dressing as a woman. These crimes are SO PROLIFIC in the general population, and those who are caught, and get a record are the tip of the iceberg. The police are the people - some of those from the public go on to join the police. Vetting won’t spot it because there’s no record. Some of them will stay out of the police but in other spheres giving them access to children, but vetting won’t spot it, because there’s no record. DBS just says ‘not been caught’. So, that’s your first issue - the predator remains at large until he’s caught.
The second issue is where the real problems start. There’s a very tight knit culture, and part of that is stand up for your mate, no matter what. How they continue that when child molesters and murderers are found amongst them is beyond me, but it’s a fact. It’s closed shop and there’s a LOT of incompetence covered up, a lot. Investigations cuffed, illegal searches, putting each other at risk. Training doesn’t resolve it, most of the time the trainers are fellow cops ‘right, let’s get this shit out of the way’ or ex cops. Government cuts have meant cuts to training budgets, so even with a decent and engaged trainer, they can’t afford to have the off the street for what is really needed, but tell trainers to reduce time spent on subjects.
Day to day the Home Office and College of Policing send out new guidance, changes, revisions of codes of practice etc etc. It’s impossible to keep on top of everything. Demand grows and grows and grows, the public expect the police to be social workers, youth workers, mental health specialists, paramedics, punchbags and counsellors. This does not excuse the culture or the lack of weeding out ALL the bad. The toxic culture has grown unchecked by creating the perfect environment. Supervisors are often ‘acting up’ - this means another PC (who’s been allowed to take the Sgts exam without any consideration for suitability as a supervisor) with no more training and usually little more experience than the ones they’re in charge of. In 2010 Theresa May firmly aimed Austerity at the police, and over 20000 left. Now they have more leaving than they recruit. Boris’ ‘20,000 more police officers’ (ok, 20,000 to replace the ones we got rid of) had to be recruited and trained in an unrealistic time period that led to a horrific recruitment campaign, and standards plummeted. If even 1 of the ones recruited under this initiative from Boris fails, the force loses ALL the funding. Against the background of this, the government and College of policing have seen fit to introduce no fewer than 6 different entry routes. They have not, however, provided the structure and guidance to implement them, and the government hasn’t provided any further funding to support these routes. Many of them curtail time spent learning basic policing. Direct entry detectives are often barely more than kids, and are shoved into domestic abuse or sexual offence teams which are difficult to recruit to because of the relentless volume of jobs and no time given to investigate them properly. That DC who didn’t investigate the incident with Couzens at a MacDonalds? I would put my money on her just not having the time.
so, in this environment, tiny misbehaviours fester, grow and become more extreme. Supervisors don’t have the skills, experience or ability to deal with such things, and don’t feel supported from above. Depending on who you are and who you report, things are just ‘disappeared’. Team dynamics are massive - if your Sgt or Inspector are badduns, then either put up or move. Any training to attempt to change the culture isn’t attended by the Exec, and they do nothing to stop it just being sheep-dip lip service. Officers cheat and copy to complete qualifications and nothing is done when it’s found out.
Anyone decent is leaving, a bit like the NHS and teaching.