Embattled police chiefs are to be blamed for devastating failures that have shattered faith in the service.

A scathing report out tomorrow is set to blast senior officers for overseeing a ‘breathtakingly inadequate’ culture, marred by jobs-for-the-boys promotions, poor training and lack of support for frontline officers.

Backed by the Home Office, the excoriating document – compiled after one of the most comprehensive investigations into UK law enforcement – is expected to call for a root-and-branch overhaul of how officers are recruited, trained and promoted.

It was ordered after a series of scandals, the most shocking of which was the kidnap and murder of Sarah Everard by Met officer Wayne Couzens in 2021. 

Co-chaired by former Labour home secretary Lord Blunkett, the independent Police Leadership Commission is set to say: 

• Senior officers run a jobs-for-the-boys system of recruitment to top posts; 
• Levels of trust within the service are frighteningly low, with only 16 per cent of constables willing to question those in authority;
• Forces are so desperate for recruits they rely on candidates without degrees;
• Low morale is endemic, with as many as one in three officers having less than five years in their jobs.

On this page, Lord Blunkett outlines some of his findings, describing use of data as ‘Stone Age’ and accusing senior officers of ‘nepotism’ when it comes to promotions.

He writes: ‘I don’t use the word “nepotism” lightly because it implies deep-seated preferential treatment… But I’m afraid it’s true.’

The findings of the commission, co-chaired by former Tory justice minister Lord Herbert, will be endorsed by Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood. 

It follows an inquiry into Ms Everard’s murder, which said that without a significant overhaul, ‘there is nothing to stop another Couzens operating in plain sight’.

Since then, ten Met officers were dismissed for ‘appalling’ treatment of detainees and boasting of using force on a young woman; and it was revealed officers handcuffed Henry Nowak, 18, as he lay dying in Southampton.

Last night, Lord Blunkett added: ‘Many of the systems and processes for recruiting, training, developing and promoting our police officers are stuck in the last century. They are breathtakingly inadequate.’