A group that monitors and investigates the police is looking into 12 police officers, who are currently or previously employed, to see how they dealt with past claims against a bad police officer named David Carrick.
The police officer who was a serial rapist was sent to prison for the rest of his life for misusing his position and taking terrible advantage of 12 vulnerable victims for a period of 20 years. This happened earlier this year.
Carrick, who is 48 years old, was called a terrible person by one victim, and another victim said she had experienced something very bad when he attacked her.
The court in Southwark heard that a police officer named ‘Bastard Dave’ committed many violent and brutal sexual assaults from 2003 to 2020.
The Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, said that the crimes committed by this person are a disgrace to our police force. She also emphasized the importance of finding out how he managed to be a police officer for such a long time.
Today, the police watchdog, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), announced that they are looking into the actions of 10 current and former police officers for very serious wrongdoing, and one other officer and staff member for less serious wrongdoing.
Five Metropolitan Police officers, including a detective constable, detective sergeant, detective inspector, and two chief inspectors, are being investigated for serious wrongdoing.
In July, the IOPC said it will investigate the MPS for not properly looking into accusations against Carrick in 2002, 2016, 2019, and 2021. They don’t often do this kind of investigation.
The investigations have been moving forward and this month, the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) informed five of its officers that they are being investigated for serious misconduct. These officers include a detective constable, detective sergeant, detective inspector, and two chief inspectors.
A person who used to work for MPS, now works at the City of London Police force. Two other people, who used to be a police constable and a superintendent in MPS, are also being investigated for serious wrongdoing.
A worker in the MPS and a police constable have been told they are being looked into for bad behavior.
People have received notices because the IOPC found signs that they might have broken the rules of how police are supposed to behave.
Some people believe that they may not have done a good job of looking into accusations against David Carrick when he was a police officer.
This doesn’t always mean that there will be consequences for bad behavior.
As investigators gathered evidence, they looked at important papers and studied the laws, policies, and instructions that were in effect at that time.
IOPC regional director Mel Palmer mentioned that we are thinking of all the women who were harmed by David Carrick and came forward to report it.
After we looked into how the police handled complaints against Carrick earlier this year, we decided to investigate several instances where police officers and staff may have made mistakes when dealing with these complaints.
If these problems had been handled properly, Carrick might have faced serious punishment and been kicked out of the police force a long time ago, instead of being arrested later on.
We told some officers that they are being investigated, but it doesn’t necessarily mean they will be punished right away. After we finish looking into a situation, we will decide if anyone should be punished for their actions.
“We have found some things that individual forces can learn from, as well as national recommendations that we are currently working on. ”
The IOPC said that two officers have been given notices of investigation because they are looking into concerns that the Wiltshire Police did not properly investigate a report made against Carrick in 2016.
A police officer from Wiltshire and another officer, who is now a higher-ranking inspector, have received notices accusing them of serious wrongdoing.
This investigation started because Wiltshire Police told us about something in July 2023.