In March, a watchdog report revealed that some 2,000 Metropolitan Police warrant cards were unaccounted for.
During a performance and accountability meeting on Friday (April 22), Police & Crime Commissioner Katy Bourne asked Deputy Chief Constable Julia Chapman what the situation was in Sussex.
The issue of warrant cards has been heavily discussed since the murder of Sarah Everard, whose killer used his card to lure her into a car.
Mrs Bourne said: “I think the concern from the public’s point of view is about having a warrant card that you can show and the member of the public is not going to know if you’ve retired or moved or left or whatever.” While Ms Chapman did not know how many Sussex warrant cards were currently unaccounted for, she assured Mrs Bourne that a review of the recovery process was under way.
She said: “We’re confident in our systems but as always we want to test them – we want to do the audit – to make sure that they’re as robust as they can be.”She acknowledged that there could be a ‘slight delay’ between a former officer’s line manager receiving the card and passing it on to the relevant department.But she told the meeting that once an officer had left the force, their card was deactivated so that it could no longer be used to access any police buildings.
She added: “As with anything, the policy is good but we need to check that it’s actually being carried out in the way that it should be.”
An update on the review is scheduled to be shared at the next meeting on May 20.
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