Carrick horror shows our forces are rotten to the core

I'm a police officer, you're safe with me". Those chilling words came from serving Met police officer David Carrick, who has pleaded guilty to 49 sexual offence charges including 24 counts of rape over two decades in several police roles and forces. Heinous crimes like his mandate a similarly transformative inquiry.

- NAZIR AFZAL

In the aftermath of the horrors of Dunblane, the government rewrote the rules of gun licensing. Following the atrocious events at Hillsborough, the government and footballing authorities rewrote the rules and transformed the grounds. When Stephen Lawrence was murdered by racists, a judicial inquiry investigated policing thoroughly.

It comes at a time when the investigation and prosecution of violence against women and girls is heavily and rightly criticised, after years of poor conviction rates - and a perception, if not a reality - that the police just don't care.

The argument that Carrick was a one-off "bad apple" simply doesn't stand up to meaningful scrutiny. Have we forgotten the rape and murder of Sarah Everard, or the disclosures that more than 1,000 officers nationwide have been investigated for "inappropriate and offensive communications" in the last five years?

Here are the four things our police forces need to do now, urgently:

Firstly, every force should be doing an independent review, not by His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) because their reviews have failed to pick this up previously.