I believe that it was the former Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Sir Robert Mark who defined a good police force as one that ‘caught more criminals than it employed’. Sadly today there seem to be quite a few wrong’uns or alleged wrong’uns who have been employed at all levels of the Met.

The existence of criminally inclined Met officers adds to the bad image that this force has acquired in recent years over matters such as a failure to control knife crime in London, policing Tweets not the streets, officers who have raped and murdered members of the public and an obsession with politically correct policing. The obsession with politically correct policing, something seemingly encouraged by the former Commissioner Cressida Dick ended up with the soft and biased policing that many of us have seen with regards to the management of demonstrations by groups like the BLM/Marxists and the various flavours of Extinction Rebellion when compared to the robust and harsh policing of demonstrations by groups less favoured by the Establishment.

The Metropolitan Police is without doubt in a bit of a mess and this latest story will do their public image no good whatsoever. This is because it gives the impression that the Met are afflicted by rampant hypocrisy when it comes to lifestyle crimes like drugs.

According to a report on the Guido Fawkes site a senior Met officer has been accused of misconduct after he allegedly took cannabis and magic mushrooms whilst on holiday in France. This case would be quite run of the mill were it not for the fact that the accused officer, Commander Julian Bennett, was the one in charge of presiding over misconduct hearings of other officers and whose other main responsibility was formulating the Met’s drug crime strategy.

Guido said:

Commander Julian Bennett, who’s been on a full-pay suspension since July 2021, took the drugs between February 2019 and July 2020, despite having previously presided over 74 misconduct hearings himself, of which 56 officers were dismissed. Years of grassing up colleagues now at an end.

Bennett also reportedly refused to provide a drug sample back in July 2020, which didn’t exactly help his case. Photos shared in a WhatsApp chat, which appeared to feature cannabis on a table, were also referred as evidence to the hearing.

The case has apparently, according to Guido, been adjourned because of concerns that not all of the WhatsApp messages had been received and this might compromise the fairness of the investigation.

There’s more detail about this case over at a site that is dedicated to monitoring police misconduct cases called Misconduct999. Misconduct999 stated that Commander Bennett is accused of undermining confidence in the police and bringing the police into disrepute by allegedly taking drugs and then refusing a force mandated drugs test.

Misconduct999 said:

It is alleged that on 21 July 2020 Cdr Bennett refused to comply with a lawful order to provide a sample for a with cause drugs test, having been informed that there was reasonable cause to suspect that he had used controlled drugs.

It is alleged that Cdr Bennett refused to provide a sample in order to conceal the fact that he had used cannabis, that he did not have a good reason for failing to comply with such a lawful order, and that his behaviour brings discredit upon the police service and undermines confidence in it.

It is alleged that on 21 July 2020 Cdr Bennett provided an explanation for refusing to provide a sample for a with cause drugs test that he knew to be untrue and that his behaviour brings discredit upon the police service and undermines confidence in it.

Many of us have known or suspected that junior officers in the Met and other police forces have helped themselves to drugs that have been seized, such stories have been going around for decades to my knowledge. However this is the first case to my knowledge where such a senior officer one of Commander level, which is only the fifth rank behind Commissioner, has been accused of wrongdoing regarding drugs.

Whilst it’s important to note that these accusations against Commander Bennett are at this stage just allegations, the fact that such a senior officer has been accused of drug related misconduct is yet more ordure to be heaped upon a force that appears to be drowning in the stuff. It will of course disgust many to find out that the officer who was in charge of the Met’s drug strategy from 2017 to 2021 has been allegedly dabbling in the very same things that he was supposed to be fighting against.

The Met is a complete mess and the situation is getting worse. Londoners deserve better policing than what they are getting but they are not going to get it from a force that seems to be rotten to the core and not just at the lower ranks either.