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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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UK: New Met recruits face drug tests Justin Davenport Crime Correspondent Evening Standard, London Wednesday 23 Jul 2003 Scotland Yard is to bring in routine drug tests for police recruits in a new initiative to tackle corruption among officers. Senior officers are holding talks on introducing tests amid growing fears of increased drugtaking among police and concern that addicts are being targeted by organised crime gangs. The move may pave the way for full drugs tests for all officers. Deputy Commissioner Sir Ian Blair - in charge of the Met's corruption strategy - said there was concern about officers taking drugs because it made them vulnerable to approaches from criminals. He said the Yard was in talks with police staff associations over introducing tests for recruits at the Hendon staff training college. And he added: "We have worries around drugs because once an officer becomes a major or even a routine drug user, he or she becomes hugely vulnerable to outside influence." Sir Ian, who is tipped to be the next Commissioner of the Met, said talks to bring in drugs tests for officers in general were still going on, but these were long-term. The latest move to introduce tests for recruits comes amid growing fears that an increasing number of officers regularly use cannabis and cocaine. A recent Home Office study found that drug taking was the most common type of wrongdoing among police. The survey of eight forces, including the National Crime Squad and the Met, found evidence of abuse of steroids, cannabis, ecstasy and even crack cocaine. Sir Ian said that most corruption centred around the Met's IT systems, with officers being asked to carry out "favours" for people with criminal associations. He said: "Most of the corrupt activity circles around officers being asked by people in the private security industry to provide information from the Police National Computer. Sometimes it sounds like a very ordinary favour, but it is illegal." His comments came after it emerged recently that three Flying Squad officers had been jailed for seven years each for theft after one of the UK's biggest-ever police corruption inquiries. Sir Ian said he was now satisfied wrongdoing had been rooted out of specialist squads. But there was evidence of a loosely-associated network of corrupt individuals, most of them ex-police officers. Glen Smyth of the Metropolitan Police Federation gave a cautious welcome to drug testing for recruits. He said: "People who are dependent on drugs can be a liability to the public and to their colleagues."
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