Not enough people to carry out annual police vetting

Hampshire Police Federation has said the government would need to invest heavily in paying for more staff to carry out vetting checks. Chair Zoe Wakefield was responding to reports that annual integrity checks are to be part of a new code of practice drawn up by the College of Policing.

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She said: ‘Obviously it’s a huge undertaking to complete vetting for every officer. At the moment, officers are vetted when they join the service, and then everyone’s vetted every 10 years or when applying for a role that has a higher level of vetting.

‘For Hampshire, with over 3,000 officers, it would take more than a year to vet every single officer. On the current staffing levels, I’d suggest they probably would struggle to do every officer in maybe five years.

‘So if that’s what the government wants, they’re going to have to invest heavily in it. They’re going to have to allow forces to employ a lot more people if they want that vetting done annually.

‘I think most officers don’t have a problem with it, it’s just filing in a form. Most officers’ integrity is of the highest standard and they have absolutely nothing to hide. It’s just filling out a form, it’s not an onerous process. It’s all the checks that the vetting department have to do that takes the time.’

Zoe said forces could offer more support to officers who bring up concerns about the behaviour of colleagues.