The quick police recruitment risks gangs infiltration, warns the watchdog


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Organized crime groups could use the current rapid police recruitment campaign in England and Wales to infiltrate members of the armed forces, including their senior ranks, the Head Guard warned.

Sir Thomas Winsor, Chief Inspector of Police and Fire and Rescue Services, gave the warning to the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee as evidence on Wednesday saying the government’s current program to recruit 20,000 new frontline police officers in England and Wales was risky Allowing “wrong people”.

The Home Office announced on Wednesday that the armed forces in England and Wales would be released by Aug.

Winsor said the program was “great,” but added, “If you go that fast, you run the risk of the wrong people getting on.”

“Organized crime groups, for example, plan to infiltrate the police – to take people with clean skin to the police and leave them there until they are able to meet the needs of the organized crime group,” Winsor told dem Committee.

Once infiltrated, those affected could divulge information about witnesses or evidence, or destroy, dispose of or conceal evidence, he said.

“Of course, some of them could go for higher and higher ranks,” warned Winsor.

He also told the committee that it continued to have concerns about the police recruiting screening process and that the troops were not good enough to remove officers from their ranks who displayed an attitude during their probationary period that was “inconsistent with the post of police officer ” may be.

These attitudes included an excessive predilection for violence or exercise of power, misogyny, racism, and a lack of maturity or judgment.

“You might be tempted to say, ‘We’re going to strip him or her off those rough edges because he or she looks like a good cop,'” Winsor said. “That’s not a good idea.”

The warning comes amid public concern following Wayne Couzens’ conviction last month for the kidnapping, rape and murder of Sarah Everard, whom he abducted in Clapham, south London, in March. Couzens was an on-duty Metropolitan Police officer at the time of the crime.

This case, which is now the subject of several investigations, has raised questions about the force’s review of officers.

Winsor gave his testimony just before the Met announced that one of its officers had been charged with rape, the latest case to raise concerns about standards within the police force.

On Wednesday, the City of London police, which cover the capital’s financial center, were reported to have charged Adam Zaman, an officer with the Met, with rape. The charges related to an alleged incident in the city on Sunday, October 24th, when Zaman was off duty, the Met said. Zaman was arrested Monday and appeared in Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday.

Detective Chief Superintendent Paul Trevers, commander of the East Area Command Unit, said he recognized that the public would be “concerned” if a police officer on duty were charged with such a serious crime and that the Met shared that concern.

“We acted quickly when this allegation was raised and we fully supported the ongoing thorough investigation by City of London Police detectives,” he said.

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