At this point, there is so much bad news about the Metropolitan Police that it’s difficult to imagine how things could possibly get any worse. Recently, we’ve seen the conviction of firearms officer David Carrick, a serial rapist who remained at large for almost 20 years while still employed by the Met. Another officer recently admitted to child sexual abuses while he was posted at a school in north London. Then there’s Oladeji Omishore. Chris Kaba. Sarah Everard. The list goes on, and on, and on.

You’d think that the powers that be would be doing everything in their power to address this all-pervasive culture of violence, racism and misogyny. At best, the government ought to defund the Met police and reallocate the money to non-policing forms of public safety and community support. At the very, very least, the Met should be far more stringent when it comes to the vetting process when it comes to new recruits. They shouldn’t, for example, be encouraging retired officers with histories of misconduct records to re-apply for their jobs. 

…And yet, the Met Police has asked hundreds of retired officers with histories of misconduct records to re-apply for their jobs.

The Met wrote to more than 3,200 retired officers asking them to consider applying to their ‘Enhanced Return Scheme’, which is designed to help boost police numbers. Of the 3,200, more than 250 were officers who were disciplined at misconduct proceedings during their time with the Met. The retired officers received letters inviting them to return because of their “valuable skills and experience”.

“Our need for experienced officers is greater now than ever before,” their website reads. The force is under considerable recruitment pressure to reach its target of hiring 4,000 new officers by March, as part of the government’s increase of 20,000 new officers across England and Wales. Why we need more police when so many harrowing, violent, and hate-fuelled crimes are committed by police themselves isn’t clear, which is great.

In response to the news, a source close to Suella Braverman told The Times: “This is worrying and the Met police should be making sure any officers coming into the force are of the highest quality.”

A Met spokeswoman said in a statement to The Times: “Six people have returned to the Met under the enhanced return scheme. None of these officers had a live warning or were subject to misconduct proceedings at the time of being accepted back into the Met on this scheme.”