Failures in Met’s recruiting drive blamed on panic

A move to recruit hundreds of extra London police officers has been criticised as panic-stricken after scores of trainees failed security vetting, health checks and classroom exams.

More than 400 Police Community Support Officers were selected for training to become fully-fledged officers in February. It was part of moves to meet Boris Johnson’s target of deploying 32,000 police on the capital’s streets.

But about 60 were kicked off a month later for what Scotland Yard called “a number of reasons relating to national recruitment standards”, though 22 were reinstated after a review by Deputy Commissioner Craig Mackey. Another 20 pulled out before the course began.

The officers removed from the course at the Met’s training school in Hendon fell into four categories: failing strict vetting checks; failing course exams; failing health assessments by the force’s chief medical officer; having high levels of sickness absence as PCSOs.

Those in the first three categories remain off the course but the 22 with poor absence records had their sick days signed off by line managers and were allowed back.

The Yard launched a major recruitment drive in January. Announcing the move, Mr Johnson said it would help him fulfil his vow to put 1,000 more officers on the streets during his term as Mayor.

Metropolitan Police Federation chairman Peter Smyth said: “They introduced panic measures to get numbers back up, brought in people without proper checks and have ended up in a mess.”

Lib-Dem mayoral candidate Brian Paddick, a former Met deputy assistant commissioner, said: “If you recruit too many officers too quickly, the calibre falls and you store up problems for the future.”

The Met today admitted training started “before some usual recruitment checks were complete” as it ensured it had “the right capacity to meet the ongoing challenges of policing in London in 2012”.

But a spokesman said the fact about 40 PCSOs were asked to leave meant standards were not being lowered. A second set of 300 began training on Monday.