There’s a reason violent people are drawn to the police force, we need to look at why.
Earlier today, footage from Arkansas went viral showing 3 police officers violently assaulting a man on the street. He was pinned down, punched repeatedly, his head slammed into concrete. It was extreme violence that if we saw from anyone else, would at best be grievous bodily harm, and at worst be attempted murder.
The second biggest problem with the video, aside from the brutality, is how unsurprising it was to see. It feels like every week we turn the news on, or we log onto social media and we see another police force in the UK or USA on blast for abuse of power. My local force is currently under investigation for this same abuse of power after a 93 year old man with dementia, one leg and who was wheelchair bound, died after being tasered, pepper sprayed and beaten with a baton. I have no doubt at all that it’s not just the UK and USA, they just happen to be the countries spotlighted most online.
And what I also have no doubt of, is that it’s time for the “bad apples” analogy to stop. This is happening so regularly in forces across the country and in countries across the world, we have to perhaps acknowledge that there isn’t just a few bad apples in the forces, but rather that the police force attracts the bad apples of humanity.
On average in the UK, one woman every week is coming forward to report that her partner who works in the police is abusing either her or their kids. Between January 2018 and September 2021, 1,319 police officers and staff from 41 forces across the UK were reported for domestic abuse. 80% of those are still working in the police. Why does that matter you may ask? Domestic abuse wouldn’t lose you your job as a builder or electrician, why should it cost them theirs? And the answer to that is simple: Because a man who abuses his power over people he perceives as weaker than him - a woman or a child in this scenario - will carry that attitude over into his work. In other workplaces that might look like a condescending boss, or a manager that treats his workers badly. But when that work puts him in a position of power like that of a police officer, how then can we be surprised when he acts with violence?
Data from the start of this year showed that Police Scotland were receiving 300 complaints every month, including complaints of assault and sexual misconduct, between 2014 and 2020. 45% of those complaints were minor and resolved with ease. However, 1,834 of the complaints contained allegations of criminality, including 204 of sexual misconduct. Out of the 14,780 officers with complaints against them, 9,561 (64%) had more than one complaint against them and four had between 20 and 25 complaints against them. Only 7 officers lost their jobs as a result of the crime claims, and 42 retired or resigned. That’s only 2.6% of the 1,834 complaints resulting in dangerous officers being removed from the role.
The statistics on racism in police violence have been said over and over in recent years, it’s easy to see them just as numbers and not as consequences of attitudes that are common place in the institution. An investigation by the IOPC this year found that the Met police had a culture of racism and misogyny. A culture. That means it’s not a few bad apples, it’s actually in the bones of the institution. Text messages exposed during the investigation found that not only do officers know who the worst offenders in their forces are, they make light of it with nicknames. “Mcrapey raperson” was one such nickname, in a group text where officers bragged about hitting their girlfriends because it “makes them love you more”, and how if they were single they would “happily rape” someone.
In the four years up to October 2021, some 2,000 allegations of sexual misconduct - including rape - were put in against serving police officers. Two thirds were discontinued, but about 30% of those accused had previously faced separate claims of wrongdoing. Repeated accusations, and yet even when found to be guilty of sexual misconduct, only 33% of those officers lost their jobs. Again, much like with the domestic abuse officers targeting the people they perceived to be weak, these officers were doing the same. Research by Bournemouth University showed that 20% of victims had previously suffered domestic abuse, 10% had mental health problems and 25% had been sexually assaulted in the past. And yet 66% of those found guilty got to remain working for the police.
Despite that being an abysmal figure, it’s still better than the general dismissal for officers found to have potentially committed gross misconduct. Those figures are fewer than 1 in 10. That means over 90% of officers found to have potentially committed gross misconduct are allowed to continue in their roles or in alternative roles within the force. And this isn’t just about gross misconduct to the public, this is also about how other officers are treated, the ones who don’t subscribe to the boys club, thin blue line culture. Whilst 90% of the perpetrators get to stay in their positions, the ones who speak out are often punished. News broke yesterday that despite claiming they would have a “zero tolerance police” on racism and sexism, the Met Police are taking an ex officer to court. Not an ex officer who abused their power and committed gross misconduct, but an ex officer who spoke out about facing racism and sexism. The reason she’s being taken to court? Because the force had put a gag order in place to silence her, and she spoke out anyway.
And is this behaviour all that surprising? Even down to the language used to describe the institution. It’s a public service job, but where we have the Fire Service, the Ambulance Service, Education Services and Providers, Health and Social Care Workers, they are the Police Force. And they are very insistent on that term, forces. There are 45 forces in England and Wales. Not Police branches, or Police departments, no. Police forces. I’m not a psychologist but that isn’t language that encourages considered and measured responses, or reasonable uses of power.
Regardless of the language used to describe it though, it is clear that violent people, misogynistic and racist people, they are drawn to this career path. It doesn’t take much work to figure out why when you look at the facts laid out before you. Not only does the career enable them to partake in that violence, that casual racism and misogyny they’d perhaps be ostracised for in other careers, they are able to do it amongst friends. In the locker rooms, in the social media groups and text chains. They’re able to do it without consequence. They’re able to do it and be protected. They’re able to do it whilst being given the support network they need to make their victims lives hell if they try to speak up. They’re able to do it and keep their jobs, keep their power. And this lack of consequence not only enables the behaviour but encourages it. If you know you can abuse your power and get away with it, and you’re the type of person who likes to abuse your power, why would you stop once you know you can? It’s the same ideology that is behind how gangs and mafias are run. Policing is not poisoned by a few bad apples, it is a safehaven for them. It welcomes them with open arms. And changing how you penalise officers accused of violence as is the current plan, it still doesn’t tackle the root problem. These officers shouldn’t be employed in the first place. Removing bad apples from a diseased orchard will not cure the disease, and more will keep coming to the orchard if the disease itself is not cured.