Policing the Police in the United Kingdom

Abstract

Public trust in British policing has been shaken over the past decade by a run of serious misconduct cases, most visibly the murder of Sarah Everard by a serving Metropolitan Police officer in 2021. Since then, the United Kingdom has produced an unusually rich public record on police misconduct: official statistics, inspection reports, independent reviews and new legislation. This study uses that record to examine why police misconduct occurs, how the system for holding officers to account in England and Wales is organised, and what its main benefits and challenges are. It follows a qualitative documentary design. A purposive corpus of 22 publicly available documents published between 2017 and 2026 (official complaint and misconduct statistics, reports of the Independent Office for Police Conduct, His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services, the Baroness Casey Review, the Angiolini Inquiry and government reform papers) was analysed thematically, alongside the governing legislation and leading case law. The analysis shows that the oversight system has real strengths, including an independent investigator, published learning recommendations, public hearings and a sharp rise in dismissals. It also faces five recurring challenges: a fragmented and layered structure, slow processing of complaints and misconduct cases, the administrative weight of minor complaints, a police culture that has tolerated discriminatory and predatory behaviour and resisted scrutiny, and uncertainty about whether the system's cost produces better behaviour and greater public confidence. The article closes with suggestions for reform and for future research.