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By Douglas Mansfield The head of the Metropolitan Police Sir Ian Blair may be justified in thinking can things get any worse for his organisation? In a period that has seen police officers convicted of fraud, an enquiry into the killing of Charles de Menezes, litigation over racial discrimination from Met commanders against the Met, all against a backdrop of more crime on the streets of London.
Changes introduced by Sir Ian Blair within the Met which have provoked a massive level of strife internally at changes from the centralising of MetCall to Hendon and Bow and moving local well experienced call centers to factory style call centers losing operators who knew how to direct officers to calls by the public.
Failure by senior management within the Met to stop this ridiculous level of opportunistic and headline grabbing litigation by ethnic officers, all extremely damaging to the Met.
Blair has failed to make any inroads with Mayor Boris Johnson who from next month takes direct control of the scrutiny of the police by taking charge of the Metropolitan Police Authority. The powers and influence of the highest echelons of the Met are increasingly being questioned by politicians within City Hall given the level of dissatisfaction from the public at large at the apparent failure of the Met to respond to the public's concerns.
The number of cases involving police officers being charged and prosecuted for fraud is also making more headlines, with the recent case of Detective De Cadanet convicted for using a Met credit card illegally to sum of over £70,000, he now faces ten months in jail. There are a further twenty of these cases still being looked at by external auditors.
The Ghaffur, Dizaei cases and other employment tribunals involving "ethnic" officers seeking redress by litigating against the Met is not only costing the Met thousands if not millions of pounds to contest, but the message it sends to staff within the Met is that "it is a soft touch" according to an experienced lawyer dealing with these cases. The Met is too quick to press the nuclear button and offer settlement out of court, when simply its own internal employment practices need to be sharpened up to deal with incompetence and in certain cases gross misconduct.
Moreover the Met now needs a new head, Blair is perceived as damaged goods either within the Met and by the public and by the political establishment. New faces need to be brought into the Met from the private sector who can contribute positively to this very important organisation to reform the arcane and antiquated practices that exist.
In the meantime knife crime in London is still rising despite the tripe given out by the MPS with over 27 murders on the streets of the capital already recorded this year.
photo credit: MPS website
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