The Police Inspectorate of His Majesty confirmed on Tuesday that the Metropolitan Police has taken special measures as it awaits a new commissioner to reverse the deterioration of public confidence. But the full extent of one of the worst crises to ever hit policing across England and Wales is much more widespread and has not yet been made public. Never before have so many of the 43 local forces been judged to fail at the same time. Nearly one in seven forces is currently being judged by the HMIC, the official police inspectorate, to need intensive assistance and monitoring to urgently improve their performance. The downfall of the Met, Britain’s largest police force, in the category of failed forces has led the Conservatives to blame London Mayor Sadiq Khan, while Labor has said the government in power since 2010 is responsible. In addition to the Met, forces known to have taken special measures, officially called “involved”, were Cleveland, the Greater Manchester Police, the Gloucestershire. Staffordshire and Wiltshire are the other two forces failing, an HMIC spokesman confirmed to the Guardian. The HMIC spokesman said: “The number of forces in the engagement phase varies from time to time. “Six is the largest number of forces found in the engagement phase at the same time.” The Met is the most high-profile failing force and is the first since its founding in 1829 that it is deemed to need special measures. On Tuesday, the Guardian revealed 14 new failures revealed by another undercover HMIC inspection, coupled with a drop in public confidence following repeated scandals that led the inspection to an unprecedented move. The report is at least six weeks away from publication and comes after the first round of interviews for the two remaining candidates to be the next commissioner. They are Mark Rowley, who left the Met in 2018 after serving as head of counterterrorism, and Assistant Commissioner Nick Ephgrave, who ran local police throughout London. Cressida Dick was ousted in February, choosing to resign after Khan told her he was not convinced by her plans to pull the Met out of a series of crises. In the Commonwealth, Police Secretary Keith Malthaus rewrote his last-minute speech to include an attack on Hahn, who is also the police and crime commissioner for London. Malthouse said: “I do not know how much more serious it can be for the London police. It is the first time in their history that special measures are taken. “He’s supposed to be our prime minister, our biggest police force and the main culprit is the mayor of London. He has to go ahead and do his job.” Khan responded by saying: “Londoners will not be surprised that our conservative ministers are shirking their responsibility after 12 years of mass cuts. “We lost 21,000 experienced officers across the country, many of them in London. “Due to the funding of the City Hall, we managed to replace many of them, but clearly, with younger, inexperienced officers.” Dick, under whose commissioner the Met sank into a failed power regime, was jointly elected in 2017 by Khan and the Conservative government. Her replacement is expected to be announced sometime in July and will be appointed by royal decree. Home Secretary Pretty Patel is making the choice and must take the views of the mayor of London into account. Although not officially part of the process, Downing Street also influences choice. A spokesman for the Interior Ministry said: “We expect improvements. “We are a clear force and the police and their crime commissioners must meet the public’s priorities; continuing to recruit thousands of new officers to protect local communities.”
