THE MET Police’s Directorate of Professional Standards (DPS), the body which is meant to ‘root out misconduct’, is itself under investigation for ‘serious corruption and malpractice’ and ‘racism’.
Scotland Yard is now embroiled in the largest police corruption inquiry for 40 years, with 14 officers under investigation. The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said it was also investigating claims of racism in the DPS.
The probe was launched after whistleblowers raised concerns about senior officers in the DPS.
So far, gross misconduct notices have been served on three officers, one of whom is also under criminal investigation. A ‘number’ of other officers are also being assessed.
Jonathan Green, the IOPC’s London director, said: ‘I can confirm we have begun an investigation into allegations of serious corruption and malpractice within the Directorate of Professional Standards of the Metropolitan police.
‘The investigation includes alleged interference in, and curtailment of, investigations by potentially conflicted senior officers, failure to investigate allegations of wrongdoing, systemic removal of the restrictions of officers under investigation and racial discrimination.
‘As part of this investigation three officers have been served with gross misconduct notices and one of those officers is also under criminal investigation. Assessments on the status of a number of other officers remains ongoing.’
Three Met whistleblowers originally approached the IOPC to allege that the unit has shielded police officers who faced allegations of child abuse, grooming, fraud, physical assault, racism and, in the case of one police officer, intentionally driving a motorcycle into a member of the public.
