Police still try to blame others for mistakes says ex-Met chief

A FORMER deputy chief of the Metropolitan Police has warned that cases of police trying to blame others for their own high-profile mistakes are still “prevalent” 23 years after the Hillsborough disaster cover-up in South Yorkshire.

Brian Paddick, who was deputy assistant commissioner of the Met before retiring after a 30-year police career to become a Liberal Democrat politician, told the Yorkshire Post he was not surprised to learn officers had colluded to pin the blame on Liverpool supporters after 96 people were crushed to death at Hillsborough stadium.

Mr Paddick drew parallels with the shooting by armed officers of Jean Charles de Menezes in 2005 at Stockwell Tube station, in which suggestions were put forward by the Met in the immediate aftermath that the electrician had been acting suspiciously and may even have been on drugs.

“The difficulty is that when you look at cases like de Menezes and other cases of deaths in police custody, there appears to be a propensity of the police trying to put the blame on others,” he said. “There was the talk of de Menezes having traces of cocaine in his bloodstream that could have made him jumpy. Well, in fact they were so minimal as to have no effect on his behaviour.

“So it’s just an example, obviously nothing on the scale of Hillsborough, but of the police trying to divert attention away from their own mistakes. That is still prevalent.

“The experience of Hillsborough and of other incidents in the more recent past show there are people within the police service who tend to adopt that approach.”

Mr Paddick was speaking after a fringe event at the Lib Dem party conference in Brighton where an audience heard senior police representatives insist standards have changed markedly since the 1989 cover-up in South Yorkshire.

Irene Curtis, president-elect of the Police Superintendents’ Association – which represents 1,400 senior officers across the country – admitted “individuals” remain in the police force who must be weeded out.

“I’d like to say I’m confident that (the Hillsborough cover-up) wouldn’t be repeated,” she said. “That doesn’t mean to say that there aren’t individuals within the police service who we want rid of, who aren’t the type of people we want in the police.

“I do think lots and lots has been learned since what happened 23 years ago, and the people I work with now I do not think would succumb to the pressure people clearly felt in that particular circumstance. I’m perfectly confident that you wouldn’t get that group approach to deal with a situation like that.”

She was supported by Paul McKeever of the Police Federation, representing rank-and-file officers, who said there had been a “whole change in culture in the service” in the years that have passed.

Sir Hugh Orde, who as president of the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) is one of Britain’s top police officers, appeared to suggest prosecutions of the officers involved may not be the best way forward. “I do think the world has moved on hugely since 23 years ago,” he said. “What really interests me is that there is clearly still unfinished business for the families.”

He drew parallels with his work while Chief Constable of Northern Ireland in setting up a historic inquiry team to provide information to the families of murder victims in unsolved cases.

“Without doubt the people who benefited from that experience felt they knew more about what had happened to their loved ones than they ever knew before,” he said. “It was not a judicial process in the vast majority of cases. What we do next is really important. (But) that is not a matter for me.”

West Yorkshire Police chief Sir Norman Bettison remains under investigation for his role at Hillsborough. Yesterday West Yorkshire police authority held a three-hour meeting behind closed doors to discuss his future, but declined to comment afterwards.