Illiterates on patrol
The Guardian reported that former Met Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick and London Mayor Sadiq Khan hammered out a deal in 2021 to ensure that 40% of new recruits came from black and minority communities. This was, in part, reportedly a decision made in response to the death of George Floyd and the BLM riots that ensued in the United States.
Prior to this arrangement, the target for representation on the basis of preferred immutable characteristics had be 19% of the overall force. At the time the arrangement was made, 15.4% of the force was black, Asian, and minority ethnic, or what English authorities lump together as “BAME.”
Khan’s administration suggested that the initiative was “generational,” constituting “the most significant changes to policing and black communities since the Macpherson report.”
Former Rear Admiral Matt Parr, a submariner turned inspector with His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary, told the Telegraph, “Everyone is trying to do the right thing here and they are all acting from noble motives by and large, but the upshot is they are taking too much risk with people, and where they are taking risk — and I would support them in taking risk — they are not managing it properly as well.”
Parr indicated that recruiters are “taking a risk” on minorities with criminal pasts, but suggested that is not the greater concern. The greater concern is the anecdotal evidence suggesting that in the pursuit of greater diversity, the force has apparently ended up lowering its recruitment standards to onboard persons “functionally illiterate in English” — officers incapable of properly writing up a crime report.
Parr appears at pains to note the failure of this initiative so far, given that he regards it as essential that London — “which will likely be a minority white city in the next decade or so — should not be policed by an overwhelmingly white police force.”
According to Parr, for London police to have too many of one racial group, regardless of their competence, is “clearly wrong … from a legitimacy point of view, and from an appearances point of view.”
Notwithstanding this shared desire to reduce the relative number of white people on the police force in England’s capital city, Parr suggested that dropping standards to achieve that goal will prove troublesome.
“We have a risk of recruiting the wrong people,” he said, highlighting how the new Met commissioner, Mark Rowley, reportedly indicated his desire to “dial down the requirement to meet those targets.”
Bobbies from both sides of the bars
The Inspectorate of Constabulary issued a report in November revealing some of the ways that recruiters have apparently dialed down the requirements to meet targets.
Inspectors found applicants who had received vetting clearance despite having previously committed robberies, indecent exposure, DUIs, and domestic abuse-related assaults. There was reportedly little indication that recruiters took into account the possible seriousness of the offenses.
For example, one applicant who passed the recruiters’ vetting had previously exposed his genitals to a female victim on numerous occasions, masturbating before her in at least one instance.
Another would-be cop had previously knocked over and robbed an 80-year-old woman. Again, he received vetting clearance.
The inspector’s report also found that a number of applicants were cleared despite having close ties to organized criminal groups.
Identity politics apparently has also prevented molesters from being relieved of duty.
The inspector’s report noted that a police officer had engaged in improper sexual touching of a member of the public as well as of junior officers. There were, in response, multiple complaints.
The offending officer then applied to transfer to another location. Despite knowing about the allegations, the chief constable at the second location cleared the transfer “on the grounds that accepting the transferee would make the force more diverse” — a decision in which the report’s authors suggested “undue weight [was given] to diversity considerations at the expense of an objective assessment of the facts.”
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