\n<\/p>\n
The Met’s new approach is helping alleged victims. The female officer who accused a colleague of sending sexual messages says the involvement of Daso, with its expert abuse investigators, helped her.<\/p>\n
“It just felt like they asked the right questions that made you feel like what you were saying was valid,” she says. “It’s a specialism, you have to love it and that very much came across.”<\/p>\n
Her allegations will likely amount to professional misconduct if proven, but the investigation continues. <\/p>\n
Det Supt Clark says her team are disgusted by the behaviour of abusive officers. <\/p>\n
“We don’t want them in the organisation and we need to get rid of them.”<\/p>\n
At least 1,600 allegations against police or police staff have been investigated across England and Wales in the past three years – our figures suggest – although several large forces, including Manchester and West Midlands Police refused to provide any figures, claiming it would be too costly to collate them.<\/p>\n
One of the Met’s experts on domestic abuse, Det Sgt Viran Wiltshire, says the rise in cases actually reflects the organisation’s growing understanding of how the problem can present itself – by improving training in detecting it, and working with victims to get prosecutions.<\/p>\n
“I think that’s the shift that’s happening within our Met culture,” she says. <\/p>\n
Whatever the causes, the rising number of allegations looks bad for the force. “It will get worse before it gets better,” is a phrase heard often among senior Met officers. <\/p>\n
The Met now has a new commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, and this issue is near the top of his inbox.<\/p>\n
“It’s about rooting out those who’ve let us down,” he said in a recent BBC interview. “We’ve failed to do that, and we will be doing that on my watch.”<\/p>\n
This will require determined police work by Det Supt Clark’s team. But she says many officers tell her: “I want to do this. I want to come and work in professional standards to ensure we get out the bad cops.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n