The Metropolitan (Met) police, Britain’s largest force, have tried to silence a whistleblower who exposed manipulation of crime figures, newly-released documents show.
According to the papers seen by the British daily, The Guardian, on Sunday, senior officers made three attempts over a period of about five months to prevent Police Constable James Patrick from blowing the whistle on massaging crime statistics by the Met.
Patrick received a letter warning that he will be barred from having any contact with the public.
The whistleblower was also threatened in another two letters with further disciplinary action if he continued to expose the crime figures scandal through interviews with the media.
Patrick, who is currently awaiting disciplinary proceedings, told MPs in November 2013 that rape and sexual offences were being routinely under-reported by as much as a quarter.
His remarks prompted an investigation and led to admissions by the police inspector Tom Winsor and the Met Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe that crime figures produced by the force were likely to be unreliable.
The constable resigned in March 2014, saying he was forced to quit his post “as a result of making disclosures in good faith and in the public interest.”
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