I've heard horrific stories s a police force whistleblower

What would you say attracts somebody to be a police officer? Some would say the satisfaction and fulfilment of helping others in need. However, I know that that isn't the case for everyone who takes their oath on their "pass out" day.

- ISSY VINE

Here are just some of the horrifying submissions about staff behaviour that I have received from members of the police force in the last few weeks at Speak Up Now UK, the organisation I founded to spotlight misconduct in the UK's public and emergency services.

"Officers sniffing victims' knickers in the evidence room..." one Met Police employee wrote. From another: "I overheard a missing person detective wish a young missing teenager would kill himself so they wouldn't have to keep looking for him." An employee from an unspecified force said: “I reported my colleague for following me home, but they didn't take that seriously because it has to happen multiple times for them to."

A Met Police officer also wrote to me that a fellow officer had been forbidden from being left on his own with women because he was being investigated for two sexual assaults on colleagues at a separate force.

The officer added that the colleague "regularly gets posted with female PCs, who feel uncomfortable being with him. He has made a number of comments to officers that make them feel uncomfortable, including details of his most recent sexual encounters with an officer who had only recently joined the team." The officer added that colleagues had spoken to superiors about their concerns, but that these had all been "widely ignored".