Two rogue cops sacked every day as officers barred from policing soars to record high
Last year, the number of officers banned from police duties rose to a record high, with two rogue police officers being sacked every day.
A total of 735 officers (equivalent to two per day) have been dismissed from forces in England and Wales by March 2025.
This is the most officers added to the College of Policing’s banned list, which bans officers from returning to police duty, since the list began in 2017 and is a 24 per cent increase on the previous year, when 594 people were sacked.
It comes after Britain’s largest police force, the Metropolitan Police, found itself at the center of a new racism and misogyny scandal after officers at Charing Cross police station were filmed calling for immigrants to be shot and bragging about using force against detainees.
Ten police officers are being fast-tracked over misconduct hearings after damning undercover footage raised questions about the culture and standards in the force.
The College of Policing said the latest banned list figures, covering 43 forces in England and Wales, showed a “determined and robust effort” to stamp out abuses.
The Met was the organization with the most redundancies this year, with 183 redundancies from its workforce of 33,293, followed by Greater Manchester Police with 43 out of 8,112 staff.
The most common reason for dismissal was dishonesty, which was a factor in 126 cases; There was discrimination in 95 cases and in 82 cases it was linked to illegal access or sharing of information. More than one reason may apply to any situation.
A total of 72 suspended police officers were accused of sexual offenses or misconduct; The other 31 cases involved officers who abused their positions for sexual purposes. Approximately 21 police officers were dismissed for sexual offenses against children listed as one or more of the reasons for dismissal.
It was stated that a total of 45 cases were related to a discriminatory Whatsapp group, while 26 cases were related to domestic abuse or harassment.
The majority of officers added to the list were police officers (640), but those dismissed also included a chief officer and two superintendents.
The figures also show that 280 police personnel and 31 special personnel have been added to the list, up from 233 and 29 respectively.
Since its introduction in December 2017, a total of 2,834 police officers, 223 special constables and 1,268 police personnel have been added to the banned list.
Deputy Chief Constable Tom Harding, director of operational standards at the Police College, said: “These figures show that police forces are making a determined and robust effort to police officers whose behavior falls below the high standards that we and the public expect of them.
“It goes without saying that where a police officer’s conduct breaches professional standards or even escalates into criminality, it leaves a lasting stain on the reputation of policing.
“But the public can have confidence that police forces will quickly identify and tackle unacceptable behavior by officers and staff who will never police again because they are on the proscribed list.
“The message is clear: Our policing system is built on upholding our code of ethics, courage, respect, empathy and public service, and there is no place on our force for anyone whose behavior contravenes these values.”
