Worsening Internal Crises: Why Has British Confidence in the Performance of the Police Declined?

Last week, many British newspapers were filled with news about the British Army being on standby to take over the duties of the Met Police in London after many police officers laid down their weapons due to accusations against one of them of involvement in the murder of an unarmed dark-colored young man. The case sparked widespread anger and criticism over institutional racism in the police force.

Following this unusual and unprecedented move, Home Secretary Suella Braverman expressed her full support for the armed police officers who risk their lives to ensure security.

“In the interest of public safety they [police officers] have to make split-second decisions under extraordinary pressures. They mustn’t fear ending up in the dock for carrying out their duties,” Braverman posted on X.

Scotland Yard Commissioner Mark Rowley has demanded increased legal protection for officers, while Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said armed police needed more clarity over their position.

This is not the first time that British police have made media headlines this year. During the past months, several problems facing the security system were revealed, which prompted officials to re-evaluate it and search for the shortcomings that shook the public confidence in the performance of this force, which includes tens of thousands of officers and members.

The police have recently faced accusations of racism and discrimination against women inside and outside the security institution and have also been criticized for ignoring and being lenient with petty crimes that are disturbing both individuals and companies, not to mention those remarks that accompanied the police’s implementation of the new public order law months ago.

A major operation aimed at reforming the situation within the police ranks in the United Kingdom affected about a thousand police officers and included suspending some of them from work and transferring others to other departments.

 

Armed Police Rebellion

Hundreds of Met Police officers announced that they would give up carrying their weapons after a policeman was charged with murder for shooting and killing a young black man a year ago, while the army expressed on September 24, 2023, its readiness to replace them if necessary.

The incident of the killing of the young man Chris Kaba (24 years old) at the hands of the Met Police dates back to September 5, 2022, but the court’s decision regarding it was issued on September 21, 2023.

The officer who opened fire was convicted even though he justified his action by saying that Kaba was driving a car that was being pursued by the police because it had been at a crime scene some time ago, but it seems that this justification was not sufficient for the judiciary.

The conviction of that officer spread fear in the hearts of his colleagues, and hundreds of them decided to give up their weapons for fear of a similar fate if they were forced to shoot civilians while performing their duty.

After extensive and intensive communications between the relevant institutions, the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, announced that some police officers had abandoned their rebellion, in addition to the Met Police seeking the assistance of armed security forces from other cities, emphasizing that he is in constant contact with the Met Police Commissioner, and there is no longer a need to seek help from the army.

The end of the army’s mobilization did not address the crisis of police rebellion, as the fear of prosecution when officers use weapons needs to be resolved, as the Prime Minister and his Home Secretary say, despite the figures saying that there were only 10 incidents in which civilians were injured by police gunfire in England and Wales between March 2022 and March 2023.

In an open letter to the Home Secretary Suella Braverman, Met Police Commissioner Mark Rowley suggested legal changes to the way self-defense is interpreted in police misconduct cases.

He welcomed a review into the situation by Home Secretary and asked her to “let the police police.”

Mark also recommended the introduction of a criminal standard of proof for unlawful killing in inquests and inquiries, and changes to the threshold at which the Independent Office for Police Conduct can launch an investigation.

According to Home Office figures, between March 2022 and March 2023, there were 18,395 firearms operations in England and Wales — the Met Police accounted for 20% of these.

The numbers also indicate that more than 6,500 armed police officers work in the two regions together, about 3,000 of them in London alone.

 

New Policing Shame

Legal prosecution when civilians are killed by officers’ weapons may seem to be the least of the risks that the police force should currently fear, as there are accusations and lawsuits against its members of misconduct and racism on the basis of race and gender, according to internal and parliamentary investigations.

About two weeks ago, an official report showed that 1,668 Metropolitan Police officers and staff are being investigated for alleged violence against women or sexual abuse.

“This is going to take one, two or more years to root out those who are corrupt,” Deputy Assistant Commissioner Stuart Cundy said as he updated reporters on efforts to reform the department.

He explained in an interview with the BBC that 100 officers have been dismissed for gross misconduct over the past 12 months, and 183 officers are currently suspended.

Last month, The Guardian published a report on 5 former Met Police officers who, between 2020 and 2022, sent racist messages about government officials such as the Prime Minister and the Home Secretary, in addition to figures from the royal family such as Meghan Markle, the wife of Prince Harry.

Last March, an independent review was issued that described the UK’s police as a racist institution, revealing serious failings in the force and its urgent need for radical reforms.

Lords member Louise Casey, who led the review, said that her report warned of a collapse in public confidence in the Met Police.

Misogynistic inside or outside work is also among the most prominent criticisms directed at police officers in the UK.

Figures indicate that more than 275 officers and members of the Met Police were involved in cases of violence against women between March 2022 and 2023, compared to approximately half of this number in the previous year, which reduced public optimism about the possibility of ending this problem that has begun to negatively affect people’s sympathy and cooperation with the police.

The Met Police has been hit by a series of scandals, as Officer Wayne Cousins was sentenced to life imprisonment for the kidnap, rape, and murder of 33-year-old Sarah Everard in south London in 2021.

Another armed police officer, David Carrick, confessed to committing 24 rapes and a series of other sexual crimes over a period of about two decades without being discovered and is currently serving a life sentence.

 

Year of the Shoplifter

In a related matter, the Mirror newspaper said in a report published on September 12, 2023, that the United Kingdom is witnessing what could be called the year of shoplifters, as the number of thefts has increased significantly, with business owners criticizing the lenient penalties and lack of police intervention.

One in eight store bosses no longer report shoplifting incidents because they say the police are not interested.

The newspaper confirmed that the police bear responsibility to some extent, as too much focus was placed on unnecessary distractions that distracted from their work, such as monitoring speech on the Internet, and diverted their attention away from crimes that occur in the real world, such as petty theft, anti-social behavior, and vandalism.

The newspaper said that the apparent inability of the police to arrest those who steal bicycles, cars, and homes, even when they are presented with photographic evidence from surveillance cameras, has led to a decline in people’s confidence in the performance of the police, which has contributed to creating a growing sense of lawlessness in the United Kingdom.

Figures from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) show that reported thefts in England and Wales rose by 26% in 2022.

Shoplifting is estimated to cost retailers almost £1 billion a year. The BRC said there were around eight million incidents in the 12 months to March. Police recorded 339,206 cases, with just 48,218 of these incidents resulting in charges.

In recent years, the United Kingdom has witnessed a widespread proliferation of armed gangs, whose criminal activities range from armed robbery to drug trafficking, in addition to excessive violence and settling scores among themselves.

This threatens the country’s public security and poses a major dilemma for the country’s police services.

However, the greatest danger posed by gangs is the possibility of them infiltrating the security services and installing their members there. This is what the prison guards union warned against, pointing out that gangs send their members to train as prison officers with the aim of smuggling drugs and phones to prisoners.

Other reports also indicated that these gangs actually succeeded in infiltrating the Kingdom’s police.

In turn, lawyer Bassam Tablieh said in a statement to Al-Estiklal that public confidence in the police in the UK has been greatly shaken over the past two years due to the bad behavior of its members, pointing out that reforming this institution is not easy in light of the presence of deep and worsening problems over the course of nearly three decades.

He noted that some police leaders in Britain overlooked reports submitted against perpetrators of crimes of racism, discrimination, and harassment, making these crimes normal cases and pushing those who are exposed to them into silence.

Lawyer Tablieh stressed that the Conservative government is responsible for the crises that the police are suffering from, amid the absence of government plans to fix these problems that have become known to all Britons without the need to wait for the results of reviews and investigations to be issued.