North Yorkshire Police detail vetting policy following the murder of Sarah Everard
The police commissioner’s office at the centre of a furore following the murder of Sarah Everard by a serving police constable has set out its vetting procedures in a bid to reassure residents.
A report to a meeting of North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Panel highlights how North Yorkshire Police carries out checks on all new recruits, from officers to volunteers, and also enhanced the vetting of transferees a year ago “to ensure we know as much as can be disclosed about the transferee”.
The report by the North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner’s Office follows its chief executive Simon Dennis telling the panel last month he was not certain about some legal rules regarding the issue.
York Resident Susan Galloway had questioned whether the panel believed there were sufficient background checks on new recruits and police staff transferring to the North Yorkshire force and if the processes were adequate.
Former national crime squad officer and Selby district councillor Tim Grogan told the meeting while convictions for taxi drivers were never considered spent it was less clear how spent convictions were treated in the case of police officers.
The concerns were raised hours before Philip Allott resigned as the county’s commissioner after stating women should educate themselves about powers of arrest.
It had emerged Met Police officer Wayne Couzens, who murdered York marketing executive Ms Everard, had used his warrant card to falsely arrest her just two years after being transferred into the Met from the Civil Nuclear Constabulary, despite having faced indecent exposure allegations.
The report states how the North Yorkshire force follows the College of Policing vetting code so that anyone working on the police and fire service property, including contractors, and also those working remotely with access to police systems have their backgrounds checked.
It outlines how the force also re-vets transferees, regardless of when they were last vetted by previous current force.
The report states: “The checks on transferees are enhanced by more in-depth questions to their force regarding previous complaints, intelligence held on anti-corruption / integrity unit systems, and performance concerns. We only accept new recruits and transferees once vetting clearance has been attained.
“North Yorkshire Police enhanced our vetting of transferees about one year ago, to ensure we know as much as can be disclosed about the transferee. This included no assumptions over information provided by their existing force that everything would be within the history documents provided.”
The report states the force assigns a vetting researcher to undertake a series of checks and wherever there is “a trace”, more detailed research is completed, the conclusions of which are reported to the force vetting manager.
However, the report states while all applicants are required to declare spent
convictions there is no requirement for an applicant who is applying to take on a police staff role such as a receptionist, rather than an officer, to declare a conviction or caution.