The chair of the Metropolitan Police Federation (MPF), Rick Prior, has been suspended from his role following an interview he gave to GB News in the wake of several police officers being exonerated following “vexatious” investigations launched by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).
Addressing the reaction to these recent, high-profile IOPC investigations into police conduct, Mr Prior said the result of these and similar investigations is that officers are no longer applying the law without fear or favour to people of all backgrounds.
“They will draw away from that because of these vexatious, malicious investigations,” he said, adding: “They are actively not engaging with people they should be engaging with for fear of complaint and suspension.”
Last month a Met Police officer who was fined for assault after wrongly arresting a black woman for not paying a bus fare in Croydon had his conviction quashed. It resulted from an investigation by the IOPC, and was overturned after an appeal at Southwark crown court.
More recently, two Met police officers who were dismissed from the force after an IOPC disciplinary hearing into a stop and search incident involving the black British athlete Bianca Williams were handed back their jobs. Overturning the decision, the Police Appeals Tribunal found the original verdict to be “irrational” and “inconsistent”.
During the interview with GB News, Mr Prior, who was elected as the chair of the MPF in April of this year, said that officers “no longer call out bad behaviour… for fear of upsetting certain elements of the community”.
He went on to say that the force’s leadership was hampered by the “racism of low expectations” in that it failed to call out what he termed “bad behaviour” by some minority ethnic Londoners towards serving Met officers.
Following that interview, Mr Prior has been suspended from his role and is now under investigation by the Police Federation of England and Wales.
The FSU has reached out to Mr Prior to offer our support. GB News understands that his remarks have been considered discriminatory in nature and controversial, which could undermine the reputation of the federation.
