The Home Secretary has proposed the development of an automated national Police vetting system that will perform continuous background checks on police officers in England and Wales. This new checking system aims to replicate a system already in place at airports, which regularly cross-checks the names of all personnel with access to restricted areas against criminal and non-criminal databases.
Although police officers are subject to strict vetting more detailed than the enhanced DBS check when initially applying for a job, there has been concern in recent years about professional standards after the abduction, rape, and murder of Sarah Everard by off-duty Metropolitan Police officer Wayne Couzens. Plans for the new system to automate the process of cross-checking police officer names was announced before the General Election, but it seems likely that the new government will continue with the proposal.
There is lots of information online about the vetting officers have to go through if they intend to join the police. This includes comprehensive criminal records checks, financial checks and credit referencing checks, social media checks and checks on nationality and identity. Checks are not only run on the person who intends to join the police, but also on close family members, friends and partners.
Issues in the Metropolitan Police
Despite being reported for indecent exposure on several occasions, Couzens was allowed to continue working as a police officer as nobody made the link between the person who had been reported, and the police officer of the same name. In January 2024, the National Police Chiefs' Council ordered a manual check of all 307,452 officers, staff, and volunteers working in the police across England and Wales, cross-referencing their personal details against the Police National Database. Couzens was not the only serving officer who was found to have serious allegations and criminal offences made against him.
How the Police Screening System Will Work
If it is to go ahead, the government will ask the 42 police forces across England and Wales to work together to develop a system for automated vetting all serving police workers, both officers and civilian members of staff. The ability to work across different force areas is crucial, given that many officers work in one police force area, and live in another. Until now, there has been a manual process for checking names of people working for the police against the names of people arrested, or who have had allegations made against them. It is time-consuming and very open to human error, and relies on 42 different police forces effectively sharing information. It is thought that an automated system will remove work from the police, and will allow instant sharing of information about any officer.
The Home Office has stated that the public expect the police to recruit individuals who meet the highest standards and to maintain those standards throughout their careers. They highlight the work which has already been done to try to tighten up recruitment and vetting processes, but admit there is still much room for improvement with an automated system.
