Bad Apples

Every time a police officer is convicted of rape, murder, or abuse of position, the same response follows. A spokesperson expresses shock. The force distances itself. Senior officers describe the individual as a rare exception. The phrase 'bad apple' does not always appear but its logic always does. The institution is fine. The individual was aberrant. Move on.

Wayne Couzens was a serving Metropolitan Police officer when he abducted, raped and murdered Sarah Everard in March 2021. He used his warrant card and handcuffs to detain her under the false pretext of a Covid-related arrest. He had been the subject of multiple prior allegations of indecent exposure, including ones reported to Kent Police and to the Met before her murder. He was permitted to remain in post and to keep his warrant card. The Angiolini Inquiry's first report (February 2024) identified a sustained pattern of vetting and misconduct failures across multiple forces.

David Carrick was a serving Metropolitan Police officer for 19 years. In January 2023 he pleaded guilty to 49 charges, including 24 counts of rape, against 12 women over a period spanning his entire police career. He had been the subject of nine separate prior allegations of sexual or domestic offences during his service. None resulted in his removal. The Met's own internal review found that information was not shared between vetting, professional standards, and operational commands.

PC Isaac Arnold of Greater Manchester Police was convicted in 2024 of multiple offences including grooming a child he encountered through his policing duties. The court heard that colleagues had raised concerns about his conduct that were not acted upon. He was permitted continued contact with the public including children.

Sergeant Di Maria of the Met was the subject of a 2024 misconduct hearing after a sustained pattern of sexualised conduct toward female colleagues. The hearing found that colleagues and supervisors had received reports for years before formal action was taken.

The institutional response in each of these cases located the problem in the individual. But the cases share structural features: prior allegations not acted on; vetting failures not detected by repeat vetting; colleagues raising concerns that did not reach professional standards; warning signs that were visible to those around the officer but not to the systems that were supposed to catch them. Casey, Angiolini, the IOPC and HMICFRS have all said the same thing in different forms. The institutional response has consistently been to describe the systemic finding as an individual failure.