Wayne Couzens and his horrific crime has shaken up public trust in the police. Not only has this led to the bigger questions of women's safety, but it has also put doubt on how such officers are recruited to protect the public. On this, Ex-police chief superintendent Parm Sandhu said that other people ‘with questionable backgrounds’ had been neglected due to present processes and that the culture within the force had allowed Wayne Couzens ‘to flourish.’
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According to a report in The Times, the police watchdog is looking into reports that five officers exchanged misogynistic, racist, and homophobic material with Couzens over WhatsApp months before he killed Ms. Everard. This WhatsApp group that Couzens is also amongst the part of the problem.
Re-Vet Police Officers
As an urgent measure to reassure the public and regain their trust in the police, there is a need to take serious action. On this Parm Sandhu advised,
Everybody who works in policing now should be re-vetted. Those people who got through the vetting procedure 20 years ago, 30 years ago, all of them.
Every single person needs to be reviewed and if anything comes up in their past - it doesn't have to be a conviction, it just needs to come to notice, because this man did come to notice.
She further continued saying this is the need of the hour and should be done regularly,
It needs to be done on a regular basis so that we don't have anybody that even comes close to the actions of Wayne Couzens.
Not Enough Resources
While Parm Sandhu has made a valid point, it may still not be a logical action to take. Dal Babu, a former Metropolitan Police chief superintendent, comments that he did not believe the infrastructure existed to re-vet all police. He said,
The idea of doing a full re-vetting of all individual officers is a huge task and I am not entirely sure that is what's needed. You do have an ongoing vetting process throughout when you are in the service.
He did say, however, that the procedure that permitted Couzens to join the force needed to be reviewed.
