Police legitimacy ‘hanging by a thread’ after Carrick rape case, say chiefs

Police chiefs have said legitimacy in the profession is “hanging by a thread” after rapist David Carrick was exposed and called for reforms to make it easier to catch other

serving offenders. Chief Constable of British Transport Police (BTP) Lucy D’Orsi expressed her shame and anger that a fellow officer had been free to carry out his 18-year

campaign of abuse. Humberside Police’s Chief Constable, Lee Freeman, called it “one of the darkest weeks for policing that I have known” in his career of nearly three

decades. On Monday, former Metropolitan Police officer Carrick, 48, admitted 49 criminal charges including 24 counts of rape against 12 women, making him one of the UK’s

most prolific known sex offenders. I feel that the case of Carrick, along with other prominent cases that regrettably precede it, means police legitimacy is hanging by a

threadLee Freeman, Chief Constable of Humberside Police Carrick faced complaints about his behaviour before he joined the force in 2001, then again as a probationer in 2002

and numerous times throughout his policing career until 2021. He was only suspended from duty in October 2021 when he was arrested for rape, and his pay was finally stopped

in December 2022 when he admitted the majority of the criminal charges he faced. The former officer, who was sacked from the force on Tuesday, used his position within its

ranks at first to win over his victims’ trust and later to intimidate them. In a blog post on the BTP website, Ms D’Orsi warned that gaps in the current system could allow

other serving offenders to “fall through the cracks” and called for a debate on “regulatory reform”.