Metropolitan Police strengthens standards using technology and new vetting powers

Metropolitan Police strengthens standards using technology and new vetting powers

The Metropolitan Police is stepping up its use of technology across the organisation to strengthen professional standards, root out misconduct and increase public confidence.

The vast majority of Met officers and staff serve London with dedication and integrity, and they rightly expect robust action against the small minority who abuse their position or undermine public trust – particularly in leadership roles.

Strengthening standards is therefore not only about public confidence, but about backing those officers and staff who do the right thing every day.

As criminals increasingly exploit data, digital tools and emerging technologies, the Met is modernising at pace to ensure it can both police London effectively and hold itself to the highest standards.

This acceleration of modern technology is already helping to build trust, reduce crime and raise standards: Live Facial Recognition (LFR) has contributed to more than 2,000 arrests, drones are improving the police response to serious incidents, reactive facial recognition identifies more than 400 offenders from CCTV footage each month, and specialist phone analytics are helping to bring stalkers to justice.

This organisation-wide approach includes the responsible use of automation within the Professionalism Directorate, alongside established technologies such as Live Facial Recognition, drones and other digital systems already used across frontline and specialist policing. Evidence shows the public supports this approach, with around 80 per cent backing the use of LFR and 85 per cent supporting police use of drones. Trust in the Met is rising overall and rising fastest among some communities where confidence has historically been lowest.

This approach sits alongside the Met’s established and lawful use of technology such as Live Facial Recognition, which was recently upheld by the courts following a judicial review confirming the Met’s policy and use of tech complies with human rights law and contains clear, precise and effective safeguards. The court’s findings underscore the Met’s careful, rights-respecting approach to innovation, even when challenged by activists.

By combining technology and data integration with strengthened vetting powers, the Met is improving its ability to identify risk earlier, address cultural and behavioural concerns and remove those who do not meet the standards expected by Londoners.

Over recent months, the Met has developed a new capability through a pilot with the technology firm Palantir. Following the broadcast of BBC Panorama: Undercover in the Police, the Met set out a series of commitments to accelerate our approach to culture, integrity and professional standards.

For the first time, this allows the organisation to bring together data it already lawfully holds in one place to identify potential standards, welfare or cultural concerns. This represents a significant step forward, enabling a stronger public health style approach focused on early identification, prevention and proportionate intervention. For example, the data can highlight patterns such as minimal workplace attendance alongside declared secondary employment, allowing Professional Standards to assess whether policies are being complied with and look into whether further action or support is required.

Within Professional Standards, automation supports analysis and information handling rather than replacing professional judgement. The pilot helps surface potential warning signs such as persistent absence, unusual overtime patterns or repeated system misuse. Evidence shows these trends can indicate deeper issues affecting wellbeing, behaviour or integrity. Earlier visibility allows the Met to act more fairly and consistently, ensuring officers receive timely support or face appropriate action before problems escalate.

Over the past week, the Met’s Professionalism Directorate has used these capabilities and technologies to lead targeted activity identifying potential breaches and misconduct, including:

Serious misconduct and criminality

• Serious corruption and criminality, including abuse of authority for sexual purposes, fraud, sexual assault, rape, misconduct in public office and misuse of MPS systems. Three officers have been arrested. Another two officers have been served with notices of investigation for gross misconduct and suspended.

Abuse of duty rostering systems

• Abuse of the IT system that rosters shifts by police officers for personal or financial gain. A total of 98 officers are now being assessed for misconduct or gross misconduct and around a further 500 have received prevention notices.

Hybrid working policy breaches

• Breach of the Met’s hybrid working policy – 42 senior leaders between the rank of Chief Inspector and Chief Superintendent are being assessed for misconduct for serious non-compliance, with some officers not going into a Met building for less than 40 per cent of their working time. The Met policy for operational officers is between 80-100 per cent office attendance.

Failure to declare associations

• Breach of the Met’s declarable association policy – we have evidence some officers are Freemasons but they have not informed us. A total of 12 officers are now under investigation for gross misconduct. Another 30 officers have received prevention notices for suspected but uncorroborated undeclared membership.

This work will continue and is also about reinforcing the values of the organisation – ensuring those who damage confidence, let down their colleagues or fall short of the Met’s integrity standards are challenged and, where necessary, removed, while the overwhelming majority who serve the public properly are supported and protected.

This technology-led work forms part of a wider programme to improve culture, raise standards of behaviour and rebuild confidence across the organisation.

Alongside this, the Met has significantly strengthened vetting and professional standards processes over the past three years under the New Met for London plan, leading to more than 1,500 exits.

Following sustained lobbying by the Met after a legal ruling limited forces’ ability to dismiss officers who could no longer be trusted, national Police Vetting Regulations 2025 came into force in May. The regulations allow for automatic dismissal where an officer is unable to meet vetting requirements.

The Met has now dismissed its first officer under the new law. The officer had four written warnings dating back to 2015, including sexual misconduct involving junior officers and neglect of duty. He had been suspended for a significant period of time and was being managed under Operation Assure, the Met’s previous vetting-based dismissal process, which was paused following a legal challenge in February 2025.

The officer was dismissed at the end of March. The cases of another 84 officers are being considered under the new regulations. Where vetting clearance is removed or not renewed, dismissal will be automatic.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, said:

“Criminals are constantly adapting how they use technology and policing has to keep pace, not just on the streets but within our own organisation.

“This is the Met using technology, data and stronger legal powers to confront poor behaviour, raise standards and fix our foundations as our communities would expect.

“The vast majority of our officers and staff serve London with dedication and integrity and rightly expect us to act firmly against those who abuse their position or undermine public trust, particularly in leadership roles.

“By bringing together the information we already lawfully hold, we can identify risk earlier, act faster and be fairer and more consistent. Alongside new vetting powers, this gives us the tools we need to remove those who should not be in policing and strengthen culture for the future.”

Technology already underpins modern policing. Drones support searches and incident response, Live Facial Recognition helps identify wanted offenders under strict legal and ethical safeguards, and digital tools support investigations and intelligence every day. The Met is now applying the same pace of innovation and scrutiny to professional standards as it does to tackling crime.