In the wake of the David Carrick case, UK police agencies have been instructed to check all officers and staff against national police databases to detect alleged sexist predators who may have “slipped through the net.”

David Carrick was formally fired from the police force earlier this week having been identified as one of the UK’s worst sex offenders. After admitting to 49 criminal offences, including 24 counts of rape against 12 women over an 18-year period, he was judged to have engaged in severe misconduct.

Home Secretary Suella Braverman urged the College of Policing to make application requirements more stringent and unambiguous by strengthening the statutory code of practice for police vetting. The screening procedure is an element of the application process and all police information systems are used to do background checks on recruits, and their relatives and close friends are also screened. The Home Office has requested that police forces conduct thorough background checks on current employees in light of the Carrick case. Case reviews are being conducted for more than 1,000 Metropolitan Police officers and employees who have previously been accused of sexual or domestic violence.

Chief constables will be “rooting abusers and those who betray our principles out of policing,” according to Martin Hewitt, the Head of the National Police Chiefs’ Council, which will carry out the Home Secretary’s directive. Both Labour and Conservative MPs demanded that the government take action against police officers who failed to report Carrick and enact measures to combat misogyny in the force.

Asserting that Carrick’s actions were a “truly sickening” abuse of authority, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak promised police reforms to ensure that criminals would have “no place to hide.” The Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley and Mr. Sunak are meeting to discuss, according to the Home Office.