‘UK police corruption cannot be eliminated’

It is impossible to eradicate corruption inside Scotland Yard, a senior British police official has admitted.

Detective Chief Superintendent Alaric Bonthron, who is charged with tackling malpractice inside British law enforcement agencies, said the threat from organized crime groups infiltrating police force is very challenging.

“There is a threat to any law enforcement agency. You will never eliminate corruption. You can make it very difficult and put systems in place. Organized crime by its very nature is very challenging,” Bonthron told The Independent.

British police is under increasing fire for turning a blind eye to corruption cases. Earlier this month, a confidential report leaked to the British paper revealed that organized criminals infiltrated the Metropolitan police by bribing corrupt officials more than a decade ago.

The secret internal report was written in 2002 as part of Operation Tiberius, an investigation into the Metropolitan police corruption, which identified scores of corrupt individuals working for the force.
The inquiry found criminals bribed some 80 former and then-serving detectives in order to gain access to sensitive data to help them evade prosecution.

The report comes two days after a police watchdog said there is “no doubt” that some British police forces are “fiddling” crime statistics.

A recent ComRes poll for ITV revealed yesterday that over a quarter of British people do not trust police amid a series of high-profile blunders by the forces.

The findings come in the wake of a series of public controversies involving the police in recent months, including protests over a probe into the death of Mark Duggan who was gunned down by armed officers in Tottenham in August 2011.