Failings such as those identified in this inquest stem from a culture in need of reform – and from a chronic lack of resources
- Dal Babu is a former chief superintendent in the Metropolitan police
Day by day, the UK’s police service is being hit by scandals that dominate the front pages of every newspaper. Today it is the failure to protect London’s gay community and to stop the serial killer Stephen Port.
But that’s part of what is now an awful litany: think about the other terrible police failures of recent times: the missing person inquiry failures; the photos shared by ghoulish police officers of the sisters Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman after they were murdered in north London, officers who have now received prison sentences of two years and nine months respectively ; the serving Metropolitan police officer who kidnapped and murdered Sarah Everard and then the five police officers from four forces now facing disciplinary procedures into social media messages related to that murder. Think of what we now know about failures and the swirl of corruption that infected the investigation into the death of the private investigator Daniel Morgan.
Dal Babu is a former chief superintendent in the Metropolitan police
