Updated 03/05/2021 20:22 BST
Revealed: The Met Is Facing More Than 60 Probes By Police Watchdog
Critics warn "the system is broken" as Independent Office for Police Conduct cases bring Scotland Yard's behaviour into focus.
Questions have been raised over the accountability of the Metropolitan Police after it emerged the force was facing 63 active investigations from the independent watchdog – with some going back years.
The figure was provided by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) after a request from HuffPost UK following a series of complaints about the UK’s largest police force in recent months.
Our data request initially revealed one investigation still ongoing that was first opened in March 2015, and four cases still active for each of 2018/19 and 2019/20. One of these, involving an officer who hit a vulnerable teenager 34 times with a baton and sprayed her up close with CS gas, was finally concluded on Friday as we published this story.
By Press Association 2021
The New Scotland Yard sign
The UK’s biggest police force has disciplined just six officers over the misuse of stop and search powers since 2014 – despite receiving almost 5,000 complaints, figures reveal.
Some 4,917 allegations have been made about the Metropolitan Police’s use of the tactic in the last seven years, according to data obtained by the PA news agency under Freedom of Information laws.
The number of complaints more than doubled from 786 in 2019 to 1,744 last year, with the number of searches carried out rising from 268,771 to 319,713 in the same period.
Not a single complaint among 990 cases in 2020 was found proven when investigated by the Met’s Directorate of Professional Standards.
The UK’s biggest police force has disciplined just six officers over the misuse of stop and search powers since 2014 – despite receiving almost 5,000 complaints, figures reveal. Some 4,917 allegations have been made about the Metropolitan Police’s use of the tactic in the last seven years, according to data obtained by the PA news agency under Freedom of Information laws. The number of complaints more than doubled from 786 in 2019 to 1,744 last year, with the number of searches carried out rising from 268,771 to 319,713 in the same period. Not a single complaint among 990 cases in 2020 was found proven when investigated by the Met’s Directorate of Professional Standards.