It seems like every week brings a new report of worrying action by Met Police officers.
This week I have been helping the family of an elderly woman with dementia who was handcuffed, put in a spit hood and threatened with a taser.
My constituent is 90 years old and there were eight met officers in the flat during the incident.
On 9th May Met Police officers were called to her neighbour’s flat where my constituent was. Eight police officers came and during the incident my constituent was threatened with a taser, which is known as “issuing a red dot challenge”, handcuffed and had a spit hood pulled over her head before being put in an ambulance and taken to King’s College Hospital.
The family have made a complaint to the Independent Office for Police Conduct and they are investigating. I hope they do so promptly.
Police pointed a Taser at a 90-year-old woman and put a spit hood on her head in Peckham
We also heard news recently that an elderly woman in Australia died after being tasered by police.
When tasers were first introduced I don’t think any of us thought that they would be used on elderly women suffering from dementia. And I think what we need now is proper guidance on not using tasers on the elderly.
This case is also a reminder that the Government has still not brought forwards its proposals to reform the Met police and ensure that police chiefs have the powers they need to manage and discipline officers appropriately.
That is why, along with the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, I have published the Police Reform (Performance and Disciplinary) Bill. This Bill will reform the regulations governing Metropolitan Police conduct and dismissal and has the support of Members of Parliament from The Labour Party, but also, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats. I hope to introduce it before parliament breaks up for the summer.
The rules and procedures for police management and discipline are laid down in law. So, if there is a problem, it is Parliament’s job to change them.
The deficiencies in the current police procedures and regulations were starkly laid out in the recent report by Baroness Louise Casey, and at a recent meeting with him the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service, Sir Mark Rowley, has said they need to be changed to enable him to manage the Met properly.
My Bill would introduce reforms to enable the Met Commissioner to dismiss a serving officer who is convicted of a serious criminal, to suspend an officer charged with a serious criminal offence and dismiss a serving officer who fails vetting without having to go through three layers of appeal processes.
It would also introduce a Duty of Candour, requiring an officer to proactively report any wrongdoing, whether by themselves or by others. This would end the cover- up culture in which leads officers protecting their colleagues even when they know they have acted inappropriately.
The demand for reform of the Met is not new. For 20 years police chiefs have been complaining that they lack the necessary powers to discipline officers, in Parliament we’ve complained about police misconduct, but we have failed to give police chiefs the powers they need.
The Home Office have carried out countless reviews, consultations and inquiries. Now it is time for action.
It’s time for Parliament to do its job, so that the Met Commissioner can do his job of cleaning up the Met and giving Londoners the police force it deserves.
