The Metropolitan Police has paid out £7.6m to settle misconduct claims in the past year, new data has revealed, as the force looks to resolve hundreds of claims involving instances of wrongdoing by officers.
The settlement payments agreed by UK’s largest police force – which in recent years has been mired in a slew of scandals ranging from the murder of Sarah Everard by serving officer Wayne Couzens, to another officer, David Carrick, admitting to 24 counts of rape – jumped from £3.5m between 2022 and 2023 and less than £3m the year before that.
Cases that the force settled under the description of ‘malfeasance’ ranged from complaints regarding officers’ use of excessive force, submitting false evidence, or racially profiling suspects, according to data obtained by the Financial Times.
The ballooning settlements come as the Met battles to improve standards and its quality of governance after a review of the organisation carried out by Baroness Casey last year found it to be “institutionally racist, sexist and homophobic”.
Casey’s key recommendations included reforms to its misconduct process which she dubbed “not fit for purpose”, to change vetting standards “with immediate effect”, and to establish new specialist ‘Soteria’ teams to deal with rape and serious sexual abuse cases.
In the wake of the review, published in March 2023, the Met’s commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley vowed he would do “everything… humanly possible” to carry out the review’s suggestions.
Since 2019-20, the constabulary has paid out more than £19m to settle civil claims, the Financial Times’ freedom of information request found.
A spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Police said: “The Metropolitan Police has an established process for recording and dealing with civil claims. All claims are thoroughly examined and where appropriate, robustly defended.
“By nature, policing is a dynamic and at time physical occupation which can, on occasion, lead to claims being made against our officers.
“Our officers understand this and are well aware that they are rightly accountable for the actions they take in their day-to-day deployments.”