Met chief 'frustrated' by government's lack of urgency

THE Metropolitan Police commissioner Sir Mark Rowley admitted he still needed to get rid of “hundreds of people”, but said he was “frustrated” by the lack of urgency shown by the government to make it easier for him to do so.

Police officers do not fall under normal employment law in most respects, so how misconduct is investigated and dealt with is more bureaucratic, slower, and more difficult than normal employment law, Sir Mark explained.

“The government announced a review that was, I think, due to report in May to look at police regulations and making the sort of changes I had asked for,” he said.

“We haven’t yet heard the results of that review and I’m frustrated. I need those changes in regulations to help me get on with them, because some of the processes are too long, too bureaucratic.

“And some decisions are made outside the Met. So people we’ve decided shouldn’t be police officers – an independent lawyer says, ‘Well, bad luck, you’ve got to keep them.’

“That can’t be right. No other employer has to deal with that. If I’m trying to get the minority out the organisation, while helping the majority of my people succeed, it’s not helpful to have useless slow bureaucratic processes.”

He added: “Why are we pretty much the only organisation where the leaders aren’t able to decide whether people stay in the organisation or not?

“You’re robustly challenging me on the culture of the Met and our ability to build trust in communities. It seems a little perverse, doesn’t it, that I don’t get to decide who works here. That’s a bit weird and I don’t think anybody else works in an organisation where that’s the case.”