Serial rapist and former Metropolitan Police officer David Carrick has been sentenced to 36 life terms, for the crimes he committed against dozens of women. The Guardian has deemed David Carrick ‘one of the worst sex offenders in modern history’. It reported that Carrick carried out 85 serious offences over 17 years, and the Met was repeatedly told of allegations against him. Carrick exploited his position as an officer to build trust with his victims, before using his status against them, convincing them that no one would believe their word against a serving police officer.
The Met has been under fire for some time, criticised for its inability to keep people safe and for the gaps in vetting that allow men like Carrick to abuse their position. The public have been questioning whether they trust the police as an institution. Sir Mark Rowley, the commissioner of the Met, told the BBC: ‘there is still a large residual baseline of trust in British policing’. In a poll, I asked students whether they trusted the police to keep them safe, in light of the news about David Carrick. A mere 3 percent said ‘yes’, while 56 percent of those who responded said ‘no’. The remaining 41 percent responded ‘partially/to a certain extent’. One student said: ‘For an establishment that runs on the trust of the public, every infraction betrays that trust.’ A student contended that the Met is ‘institutionally flawed’, while another stated: ‘I think that the police are based on unjust systems of power, based on maintaining power hierarchies’. The consensus from female students was that they ‘would be very wary if approached by a male police officer alone’.
Anna Birley, co-founder of organisation ‘Reclaim These Streets’, called out the ‘locker-room culture’ that is perceived as ‘banter’ within the force, but is emblematic of the ‘deeply offensive’ and ‘problematic’ views that are held. This includes a shocking number of messages about rape within WhatsApp groups, with Wayne Couzen’s nickname being ‘the rapist’ and David Carrick’s being ‘Bastard Dave’. Sarah Everard’s tragic death in March 2021 proved the shocking seriousness of this ‘banter’. The public’s trust in the police to keep them safe has been undermined time and time again, and many have had enough.
When asked whether the police would ever regain their trust as an organisation, 5 percent of students responded ‘yes’, while 44 percent said ‘no’. The remaining 50 percent answered ‘to a certain extent/maybe’. When asked to clarify what changes would make them trust the police again, one student said: ‘I think there needs to be an institutional restructure’. Another student said they would begin to trust the police again if ‘they really sorted out the system by doing proper DBS checks and firing people instantly once something has been revealed’. According to the Women’s Equality Party, a political organisation that campaigns for women’s rights, over half of Met Officers found guilty of sexual misconduct kept their jobs. Despite having five public complaints against him, David Carrick passed checks to become a firearms officer. In one of the Met’s numerous apologies, it said “vetting is a snapshot in time and, unfortunately can never 100 percent guarantee an individual’s integrity”. In January 2023, Open Access Government reported that 1000 sexual allegations against officers were being investigated. Clearly the current system is failing the public, as rapists are falling through the gaps of the vetting process, and using their positions in the force to get away with it, time and time again.
Many students could not envision an institutional restructure within the police that would ever guarantee the safety of women and minority groups, who so desperately need protecting from individuals like Carrick. A student who responded that the police would never regain her trust, told The Student: ‘As a Black person I never feel as though the police care to protect me. As a woman, the police don’t try to protect me’. Anna Birley notes the ‘misogynistic, racist, and homophobic’ culture in the Met, which she says ‘discriminates against minorities.’ An Edinburgh resident told The Student: ‘[The police is] institutionally flawed at its core with prejudice as its strongest pillar that seems to seep through to every facet of the law and its extending judicial branches.’ The BBC reported that Home Secretary Suella Braverman said Carrick’s crimes were a ‘scar on our police’. As one student put it: ‘it has happened too many times. The damage done by the police is irreparable.’
Carrick’s case has horrified students, many of whom empathise with the survivors. It is, however, sadly not a surprise. One student epitomised the direness of the situation: ‘[Carrick] was far from the first and he probably won’t be the last, so it’s hard to imagine ever having full trust in the police’.
Illustration attributed to Freddie Clemo.