#metropolitan-police

#metropolitan-police

The home secretary is to order an independent special inquiry into whether the Metropolitan police allowed hundreds of recruits to join without proper vetting amid fears they may pose a criminal risk. The Guardian has learned that the inquiry will be carried out by the policing inspectorate, with concerns centred on 300 new officers hired between 2016 and 2023. The recruits may have had substandard or no vetting before joining the Met and gaining police powers.

Confidence in the Met Police has fallen to an all-time low as Londoners lose faith in the force's management of protests, ability to solve thefts and local policing, according to a new report. A damning report published by the Policy Exchange think tank recommended that responsibility of the service should be stripped from mayor Sadiq Khan and transferred to the Home Office instead.

If such powers were misused in the manner implied, they would represent a fundamental breach of natural justice and a betrayal of the trust that officers place in the organisation they serve. Morale within the Metropolitan Police Service is already fragile if not non-existent. Officers at all levels have endured sustained external criticism, internal upheaval, and immense operational pressure. Your letter risks destroying what remains of confidence and goodwill among those you rely upon to deliver your vision.

A woman, said by police to have bought cryptocurrency now worth billions of pounds using funds stolen from thousands of Chinese pensioners, is due to be sentenced this week for money laundering. After fleeing China, she moved to a mansion in Hampstead, north London. The Metropolitan Police raided it a year later and made one of the world's single largest crypto seizures. More than 100,000 Chinese people invested their money in her company - which claimed to be developing high-tech health products and mining cryptocurrency.

Britain's largest police force has been described as institutionally misogynistic after widespread claims that a toxic sexist culture has been allowed to thrive for decades. Imran Patel resigned from his job as a police constable last year after several reports about his conduct at work over a nine-month period. He was also subject to a fraud investigation, but has been told he will not face criminal prosecution.

When I first read Shereen Daniels' report 30 Patterns of Harm, a damning review of anti-Black racism within the Metropolitan police, I didn't feel outrage I felt recognition. The report lays bare what Black Londoners have long known: racism in policing isn't a case of occasional failures. It is structural and, left unexamined, it reproduces. I also felt something else: the faint possibility of change. For perhaps the first time, the Met has chosen to see itself clearly.

A cyclist is fighting for his life after a collision in Coulsdon, south London on Monday. The cyclist was struck by a car at around 4.20pm on Ditches Lane in Coulsdon, around six miles from Croydon. Metropolitan Police officers were called to the scene, and the cyclist was taken to the hospital, where he remains in a life-threatening condition. The driver of the car involved in the incident, a red Hyundai i20, stopped at the scene and is cooperating with police as the investigation unfolds.

Just one in seven of all 999 calls to the Metropolitan Police this year have been for genuine emergencies, the force has said. Scotland Yard released audio of a woman who called for help because a big spider was trapped in her hallway. When the operator asks if it was a joke, she replies: No, it is not. Oh my God. I am terrified of spiders.

In the last year, just 15% of all 999 calls to the Metropolitan Police have been for genuine emergencies, the force has said. Non-emergency calls included someone who had a spider in their room, another whose dog would not come back into their house, and others who have had no-show delivery drivers. The force said the calls, which totalled 1.87m between July 2024 and July 2025, took up valuable call handler time and stopped them from dealing with genuine emergencies.

The unnamed player, who is in his 20s and is said to be valued at around 60 million, was on a busy London street with a friend when the incident was said to have happened, with police called at 11.14pm on Saturday, September 6. The player, who cannot be named for legal reasons, escaped unharmed, with the Metropolitan Police confirming that a full investigation has been launched.

It followed a tip-off to authorities that a frightening cache of pyrotechnics were being flogged off by an unlicensed vendor to members of the public. Fireworks should only be purchased from sellers, such as supermarkets, and not from market stalls or sellers conducting transactions door-to-door. Newham Trading Standards obtained a warrant to search a self-contained flat in Forest Gate last week and found the goods Those caught illicitly selling or lighting fireworks risk being fined up to 5,000 or sentenced to six months in prison.

PA Media A misconduct hearing for a Metropolitan Police firearms officer who fatally shot a man during a foiled prison break in 2015 has been discontinued. The officer, known only as W80, killed Jermaine Baker as police stopped a plot to snatch two prisoners from a van near Wood Green Crown Court in north London. The misconduct proceedings involving W80 came after years of legal battles over the case. The officer was accused of breaching professional standards regarding the use of force.

A teenage boy is in a critical condition after he was shot in north London. The Metropolitan Police was called to High Road, in Arnos Grove, at 17:40 BST on Thursday to reports of a shooting. A 17-year-old was treated at the scene for serious injuries and taken to hospital.