BRITAIN’S TOP cop, Sir Mark Rowley, talked tough on weeding out racists in the ranks by revealing he’s considering introducing lie detector tests for new recruits.

In his first interview with The Voice since being appointed, he compared the Metropolitan Police to a house in danger of falling down and indicated that tackling ‘corrupt’ officers would be a defining issue he would be judged by.

But he rejected the ‘label’ of institutional racism, claiming this was a ‘highly politicised’ term and he preferred the ‘clear, accessible language’ of systemic racism.

The Metropolitan police commissioner took over Scotland Yard following Cressida Dick’s resignation in February after losing the confidence of London mayor Sadiq Khan.

Dick had been hit by a string of racism scandals including horrific language shared on a WhatsApp group by cops at the Charing Cross branch and the strip-search of Child Q.

Currently, 500 cops are on restricted duties or suspended because they have been accused of serious misconduct, while 3,000 are not fully deployable because of performance concerns, mental health or physical issues. 

Asked about the Met’s vetting procedures, Sir Mark said: “We’re exploring all sorts of things. I’ve even got the team sort of researching the latest lie detector technology, [whether] there’s anything we can use in that. I’m up for anything, and everything, that will help us in our thinking to get under the surface of who are the right people for us.” 

Last month, independent investigation commissioned by the government following the rape and murder of Sarah Everard by Wayne Couzens, a serving Met officer, found applicants with criminal records or with family ties to organised crime were being cleared to join the force.

The Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) watchdog also found a failure to scrutinise allegations of misconduct, concluding: “it is too easy for the wrong people to both join and stay in the police.” 

Earlier this year, a review of stop and search by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) criticised misuse of the tactic with some cops believing that ‘reasonable suspicion’ included a person being in a ‘high crime area.’

Sir Mark believes a data-driven approach is key to identifying what is going wrong, but he also wants to squeeze out the space for ‘malign individuals’ to infect police culture by improving management with better training to enforce standards.

He said: “I know we haven’t made anywhere near as much progress as we ought to have done and that creates challenges, particularly with black communities where we have the most difficult relationship because of the challenging history we have.

“For me this is an integrity issue. You’d much rather be focused on how we keep communities safe. But if people don’t believe that we’re serious about integrity, it’s just like if you had a survey on your house and you were told you have to spend “£20,000 fixing the foundations.

“You’d be really cross about it, but frankly, you’d have to find a way of doing it, otherwise your house is gonna fall down. 

“It’s a bit like that for me, I have to find a way of fixing that and be really vigorous about that. But then be equally vigorous about how we tackle issues of crime that concern communities.” 

With young black men 12 times more likely to be murdered in London, Sir Mark said the black community had been ‘over-policed and under-protected’ and he was keen to redress the balance.

He said authorities needed to get better at early intervention to divert young people away from gangs.

“I’ve been discussing with the mayor trying to reinvigorate community policing, because a lot of these solutions will come at that level, for example spotting the 13 year old who’s maybe got a challenging family background and has been drawn into a gang network, spotting them, before it becomes too late.

“Because probably when they’re 16, or 17, and they’re now men of violence, it’s probably only going to end in one way in terms of prison.”

The Met’s Gang Matrix has been heavily criticised for including black men with ‘little or no’ links to criminal gangs. After a legal challenge, 1,000 black Londoners were removed, leaving 2,000 on the database.

Sir Mark admitted “the way we’ve run the Matrix hasn’t been as tight and disciplined as it ought to be” but stopped short of saying he would lobby the Home Secretary for more cash for early interventions to steer youngsters away from crime.

The Met were slammed for their slowness in suspending the firearms cop who shot dead unarmed Chris Kaba, 24, through the windscreen in September.

The Scotland Yard chief claimed that his hands were tied by the IOPC investigation process. 

“If I was gonna say, ‘Well, I’m going to start ignoring [the IOPC] and plough on and do my own thing, [people would say] ‘Hang on, there’s an independent body over there, you’re ignoring them’. So I think I have to work with [the system] otherwise, it would look very odd. 

“The facts as presented in the media aren’t always accurate. And actually, the officers deserve a fair hearing as well.”

On institutional racism, Sir Mark said the term was “a label which has become highly politicised means different things to different people, but I accept we’ve got systemic issues, and I’m gonna tackle them and sort them.”

He also said the term ‘bad apples’ was “toxic” and he preferred to talk about corruption. “I think when we talk about bad behaviour, we don’t call that sort of racism, misogyny and other things for being as bad as they are, it’s worse than bad behaviour. It’s often criminal. It’s seriously damaging to our integrity. So talking about those who corrupt our integrity is part of that language for me.”