The best police force money can buy.........

‘The secret of life is honesty and plain dealing. If you can fake that, you’ve got it made!’

Groucho Marx.

 

Well, kiss me neck! All this rass over the Old Bill on the take as if this were something new.

 

 

There have been bent coppers since the days of the Peelers. When Sir Robert Mark became Commissioner of the Met, he discovered that the Flying Squad had been corrupt since the day it was formed back in the 1920’s. But the saving grace for the Sweeney was that they were great thief-takers. In the 1980’s they almost eliminated armed robbery by operating a discrete shoot-to-kill policy. It has not been a major crime problem since.

 

 

He also found that the ‘Dirty Squad’ - Obscene Publications – was corrupt to a man, and he had to completely disband it.

 

 

But apparently pre-Mark, corruption was endemic. A very senior officer told me how it worked.

 

 

A new probationer PC joining his first station would find a brown envelope in his locker on the next Friday. He couldn’t give it back because he had no idea who put it there. He couldn’t report it to the seniors because everybody was involved. If he refused to play ball he would be ostracised.

 

 

So he might as well go with the flow!