Nepotism plagues police: 87% say badly led
A government-backed report finds police leadership shaped by nepotism, with 87% of constables saying they are badly led.
Just 13% of constables and 17% of sergeants in England and Wales say they work in a well-led police force. The rest are policing the country under leaders they don’t trust, according to a government-backed report published on Monday.
A closed shop protects its own
The Police Leadership Commission, co-chaired by former Labour home secretary Lord Blunkett and College of Policing chair Lord Herbert, spent nine months surveying nearly 2,000 sergeants and inspectors across all 43 forces. Its verdict: promotion and talent decisions are “shaped in the image of the leaders who are responsible for them at a local level,” creating what the report calls “fertile ground for nepotism and bias.”
One serving officer told the commission: “It is very clearly nepotistic. Jobs for the boys or the girls who’re mates with the right people.” No force was rated outstanding for leadership in recent inspections. Nearly a third were rated needs improvement. Two were rated inadequate.
£4m to run a £19bn service
Policing in England and Wales costs the public £19bn a year. The service spends about £4m of it training the people who lead it. That gap, more than any single scandal, is the measure of how little the closed circle at the top has had to answer for.
Since 2018, 78 investigations have been opened into police leaders from assistant chief constable upward, with the police watchdog naming cronyism, nepotism, abuse of position for a sexual purpose and corruption as recurring themes. Eight serving or former chief constables are currently under investigation or awaiting disciplinary proceedings.
The report cites the case of Nick Adderley, the former Northamptonshire chief constable dismissed for gross misconduct in 2024 after an inquiry found he had lied on his CV, including a claim that he served in the Falklands War at the age of 15. He has since been charged with fraud and making a false witness statement. Those charges are unproven and his trial, delayed on medical grounds, is not due until September 2027.
The proposed fix is more power at the top
Blunkett insists the picture is mixed: “You can have outstanding leadership and you can have deep-seated and extremely worrying behaviour” in the same service. The commission’s 27 recommendations include a National Academy of Police Leadership and a fast stream for future chiefs.
The report lands six months after ministers gave themselves new powers to sack failing chief constables directly and unveiled plans for a national police force, alongside a fivefold increase in facial recognition vans. Officers who say they are badly led by a nepotistic local circle are being offered, in answer, a more centralised one in Whitehall. Policing minister Sarah Jones says a formal government response will follow in autumn.
