# data[].attributes.body
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-58746108

Sarah Everard was walking home from a friend’s house in Clapham, south London, at about 21:30 on the 3rd of March when she was abducted. Wayne Couzens' choice of victim was random, but the attack was planned.. The 48-year-old, who had been a police officer since 2002, handcuffed her before bundling her into the car and driving away. Couzens then drove to Dover in Kent, where he transferred Ms Everard to his own car, before travelling to a remote rural area nearby. It was there that he raped and murdered Sarah by strangling her with his police belt [Becky Morton, 2021].

Several days before the attack, Wayne booked a hire car, which he would use for the abduction, as well as a roll of self-adhesive film advertised as a carpet protector on Amazon. After finishing a 12-hour shift at the US embassy that morning, Couzens went out "hunting" for a lone, young woman to kidnap and rape [Becky Morton, 2021].

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Met Police officer Wayne Couzens has been sentenced to a whole-life term for the murder of Sarah Everard, in a case that sparked national outrage and calls for more action to tackle violence against women.

Couzens admitted the kidnap, rape and murder of the 33-year-old marketing executive when he appeared in court several months ago.

But it was only during his sentencing that the full details of his crimes emerged.

Ms Everard was walking home from a friend's house in Clapham, south London, at about 21:30 BST on 3 March when she was abducted.

Couzens' choice of victim was random, but the attack was planned.

In his sentencing remarks, Lord Justice Fulford said there had been "significant planning and premeditation" by Couzens.

The police officer had "long planned to carry out a violent sexual assault on a yet-to-be-selected victim" who he intended to coerce into his custody, noted the judge.

Couzens spent at least a month travelling to London from Deal, Kent, where he lived, to research how best to carry out his crimes.

Several days before the attack, he booked a hire car, which he would use for the abduction, as well as a roll of self-adhesive film advertised as a carpet protector on Amazon.

After finishing a 12-hour shift at the US embassy that morning, Couzens, a parliamentary and diplomatic protection officer, went out "hunting" for a lone, young woman to kidnap and rape, the prosecution said.

The court heard how Couzens used the knowledge he had gained from working on Covid patrols in January and his Metropolitan Police-issue warrant card to trick his victim under the guise of a fake arrest for breaching coronavirus guidelines.

The 48-year-old, who had been a police officer since 2002, handcuffed her before bundling her into the car and driving away.

The abduction was witnessed by a couple travelling past in a car - but they believed they had seen an undercover police officer carrying out a legitimate arrest, so did not intervene.

The whole kidnapping took less than five minutes.

Couzens then drove to Dover in Kent, where he transferred Ms Everard to his own car, before travelling to a remote rural area nearby.

It was there that he raped and murdered his victim - strangling her with his police belt.

By 02:31 Couzens had left the scene and was spotted at a service station buying drinks.

He visited the site where Ms Everard's body was dumped twice, leaving just before dawn.

The next day, as the search for her escalated, Couzens bought petrol, which he used to burn her body inside a fridge.

He also purchased two green rubble bags, which he used to dump the remains in a pond near an area of woodland he owned in Hoads Wood, Ashford.

A week after she disappeared, Ms Everard's body was found in a woodland stream, just metres from land owned by Couzens.

Meanwhile, Couzens returned to normal life, carrying out mundane activities like calling a vet about his dog.

Days later, he even took his wife and two children on a family trip to the woods where he had burnt his victim's body.

However, on the 8 March, the day he was due to return to work, he reported in sick.

The following day he was arrested at his home in Deal.

In a brief police interview, he told a false story about being threatened by an Eastern European gang, claiming they had demanded he deliver "another girl" after he had underpaid a prostitute a few weeks before. He then claimed he kidnapped Ms Everard, drove out of London and handed her over to three men in a van in a layby in Kent, while she was alive and uninjured.

But after Ms Everard's body was discovered in a pond just 130 metres from land owned by Couzens, he was charged.

Couzens has since been sacked by the Met, but the force is still facing questions over whether chances were missed to prevent his predatory behaviour.

After Ms Everard's murder, the police watchdog announced it was probing alleged failures by the Met to investigate two indecent exposure incidents linked to Couzens in February.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct is also investigating alleged failures by Kent Police to investigate a flashing incident linked to Couzens in 2015.

Couzens transferred to the Met in 2018, from the Civil Nuclear Constabulary, where he had worked since 2011.

Two years later he began working for the Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command as an authorised firearms officer at diplomatic premises around central London.

In July, appearing by video link from Belmarsh high security jail, Couzens pleaded guilty to murder at the Old Bailey.

On Wednesday he appeared in court again - this time in person - for a two-day sentencing hearing.

There, he faced Ms Everard's mother, father and sister, who described to the court the torment of losing their loved one in such horrendous circumstances.

Her father, Jeremy, demanded that Couzens looked at him as he told the murderer he could never forgive him for taking away his daughter.

Her mother, Susan, said she was "tormented" at the thought of what her "precious little girl" had endured.

"I go through the sequence of events. I wonder when she realised she was in mortal danger," she told the court.

"Burning her body was the final insult. It meant we could never again see her sweet face and never say goodbye.

"Our lives will never be the same. We should be a family of five, but now we are four. Her death leaves a yawning chasm in our lives that cannot be filled."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Sarah Everard: How Wayne Couzens planned her murder

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Wayne Couzens is jailed for life for his premeditated attack on a victim he chose at random.

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JruFrZtutkY

On the 22nd of April 1993 Stephen Lawrence was murdered by a group of white youths when he was waiting for a bus back home. Stephen got stabbed twice by the group of youths once in the chest and once to the arm both injuries were inflicted to the front of the body going five inches deep [Sir William Macpherson, 1999, p. 18].

Duwayne Brooks phoned for 999 to ask for assistance as Stephen was bleeding quite badly but a police response unit was deployed instead, this was done because they believed without even being on site that Mr Brooks was probably the individual who stabbed Stephen Lawrence, they made this assumption having only heard Duwayne on the phone with the 999 operator and no other information. When the police arrived on scene, they noticed the extent of the damage and radioed for an ambulance, by the time the ambulance had arrived Stephen Lawrence was already dead. Due to various failings by the police the individuals involved got to walk free for numerous years whilst Stephens family, friends and community moaned his death [Sir William Macpherson, 1999, p.19 ].

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Stephen Lawrence - What happened? What went wrong? | BBC

# data[].attributes.body
in this assignment, I will explain what corruption, integrity and ethics is, as well as how they work within the police. I will use the case of Stephen Lawrence and Sarah Everard to better depicted incidents where the police demonstrated corruption, a lack of integrity and ethics. I will use a mixture of news articles, books and articles to back up the points I am making through out my assignment.

# data[].attributes.body
Wayne Couzens who was a metropolitan police officer fraudulently used his powers to coerce Sarah into his car before raping and murdering her. He used the knowledge he had gained from working on Covid patrols in January and his Metropolitan Police-issue warrant card to trick his victim under the illusion of a fake arrest for breaching coronavirus guidelines, using his handcuffs to reinforce this illusion. He then put her in the back of the hire car which she believed was his police issue vehicle from there he transported her to his car [Becky Morton, 2021].

This is not the first time Wayne Couzens has been suspected of illegal activity whilst being a serving police officer in 2015 he was a prime suspect of a flashing incident in Kent, the officer who worked the case closed it without first interviewing Wayne. Wayne was also the prime suspect in two other flashing cases this time in 2021 days before he murdered Sarah Everard, in February of 2021 Wayne Couzens flashed the female staff at a MacDonalds drive thru. Wayne has now admitted to these flashing incidents in 2021 [Lizzie Dearden, 2023].

# data[].attributes.body
Corruption comes in many forms of misconduct such as discriminatory actions. In the case above the police demonstrated corruption they wasted precious time questioning Duwayne Brooks because of his skin colour rather than listening to what Duwayne said originally and going after the actual offenders.

This is a quote from the Stephen Lawrence report conducted by Sir William Macpherson, “His (Dwayne Brooks) first contact was probably with Police Constable Linda Bethel. She described Mr Brooks as being "very agitated". Another Constable said that he was "jumping up and down and being very aggressive" a third stated Mr Brooks was "Highly excitable. Virtually uncontrollable"[Sir William Macpherson, 1999, p.35]. Considering what Mr Brooks had seen and been involved in none of that should have been surprising. Furthermore, Mr Brooks was justifiably frustrated and angry, because he saw the arrival of the police as no substitute for the non-arrival of the ambulance, and to his mind the police seemed more interested in questioning him than in checking on Stephen. [Sir William Macpherson, 1999, p.35]. As you can see from this quote from the report, they behaved unbefittingly of a police constable, they were discriminatory against Duwayne and Stephen as they racially profiled the two of them.

# data[].attributes.body
In this case the police demonstrated a clear lack of integrity as they failed to demonstrate any moral principles in relation to Duwayne Brooks, as they questioned him as a suspect not a victim which he was.

The police lacked integrity as they did not make an adequate attempt to save Stephen Lawrences life when they arrived on scene, failing to do so striped Mr Lawrence of is article 2 human right the right to life, this is not morally right as the constables who arrived at the scene had a moral obligation to Stephen to try and save/prolong his life [gov.uk, 1998].

The police showed a lack of integrity as they all claim they were alerted to the crime minutes before the murder even took place. According to witness statements and other evidence we know that the murder took place around 22:30 but the officers all claim they were informed of the attack at 22:25, with one officer being quoted to have said "at about twenty-five past ten". The first message that came into the police control room was timed at 22:43, so the assignment of the first police vehicle could not have arrived on scene until sometime after that [Sir William Macpherson, 1999, p.88].

# data[].attributes.body
Wayne Couzens showed a lack of integrity as he lied to Sarah to convince her to go with him, Sarah was under the illusion that Wayne was working when he stopped and handcuffed her. Committing a crime is never moral and committing a rape and murder is definitely not moral, Wayne Couzens bought petrol which he used to burn her body inside a fridge, these actions are not moral at all [Becky Morton, 2021].

The acting police commissioner launched inquiries into the integrity of the parliamentary and diplomatic protection unit where Couzens served when he carried out his crimes, the inquiries identified a lack of supervision within this unit. Racist and sexist social media postings by members of this unit, were uncovered during the inquiry. Some of these posts include an edited picture depicting George Floyd in his final moments, alongside the caption “Pink Floyd”. Another doctored photo featured the critically injured BLM activist Sasha Johnson, in a T-shirt that read “Black Lives Splatter”. These actions are never morally right but these are made worse by the fact one of these individuals was a victim of police brutality [Rajeev Syal, 2022].

# data[].attributes.body
In the Steven Lawrence case, the police showed a lack of ethics as they arrived at the scene where steven Lawrence was dying and began to question Duwayne Brooks as a suspect in the stabbing of his friend steven Lawrence. The police violated various codes of ethics in their investigation. The first code of ethics the broke was fairness as they should treat everyone equally but they did not as they treated Mr Brooks as a suspect instead of a victim which he was, they also gave the Acourts an easy run in life as the report states “The Acourts and others associated with them were plainly well known locally, but the local police had clearly not picked up.” [Sir William Macpherson, 1999, p.59]. This shows that the police were not paying attention to the Acourts actions as the whole neighbourhood knew what the Acourts got up too. The constables that dealt with Stephen Lawrence and Duwayne Brooks were not objective in there handling of the scene as they did not listen to Duwayne when he informed them of the situation over the phone as well as when they arrived on scene, this demonstrates a clear lack of objectivity as the code of ethics states, “You make choices on evidence and your best professional judgement.”[college of policing, 2014, p.3]. The evidence never suggested that Mr Brooks was the individual who stabbed Stephen Lawrence but the constables on the scene chose to ignore the evidence as they made the decision before arriving on scene that it was gang violence.

In the MacPherson report it was noted that not a single police officer on scene made or initiated a log to record their decisions and the actions on that night. This is not ethical as it means for the whole investigation no one will know what was done on the night who was spoken to, who was on or near the crime scene, this could lead to cross contamination of evidence, destruction of the crime scene anything and no one would know as there is not any notes from that day [Sir William Macpherson, 1999, p.87].

# data[].attributes.body
The police showed a lack of ethics as there has been racist and sexist social media posts by members of the parliamentary and diplomatic protection unit, uncovered during an inquiry. Some of these posts include an edited photo which featured the critically injured BLM activist Sasha Johnson, in a T-shirt that read “Black Lives Splatter”. Another doctored picture depicting George Floyd in his last moments, alongside the caption “Pink Floyd” [Rajeev Syal, 2022].

These acts go against many different policing principles within the code of ethics the main three are, fairness, respect, and selflessness. It goes against fairness as that principle says that you should treat everyone fairly, posting racist and sexist content is not treating these groups fairly. respect states that all officers should treat everyone with respect, this includes every gender and race these posts do not radiate respect. Lastly, these police officers did not act selfless as that would mean acting in the public interest, neither of these posts were in the public’s interest as George Floyd was a public figure after his death, and Sasha Johnson was an activist fighting for the public interest before she was brutally hit in the head with a bullet [college of policing, 2014, p.3] [Tyrone Francis, 2022].

# data[].attributes.body
There is not one definition for what police corruption is as corruption can take many different forms but the definition of the word corruption in the Oxford English dictionary is, “dishonest or illegal behaviour, especially of people in authority allegations of bribery and corruption.” [Oxford dictionary, 2023]. Police corruption detracts from the public consensus of the police which reduces their legitimacy in the public eye this in turn makes the lawful officers jobs harder to do. Examples of police corruption include the concealment of serious crimes, bribery, the fabrication and planting of evidence, extortion, the commission of serious crimes, including allegations of murder [Criminology, 2017, p.660].

# data[].attributes.body
In policing, integrity means using the powers given to them as police officers and using discretion to the highest standards of competence, fairness, and honesty. The police officers have to use there moral principles when encountering any situation they come across and use the correct powers in each situation [HM Inspectorate of Constabulary, 1999, p.8].

# data[].attributes.body
There is not a definition for policing ethics but the Oxford dictionary definition of ethics is “Moral principles that control or influence a person's behaviour.” [Oxford dictionary, 2023]. The College of Policing issued the Code of Ethics, which is a code of practice, under section 39A of the Police Act 1996, designed to lay out a framework in which the police officers can work within to make sure all their actions are legal [college of policing, 2014, p.1].

The code of ethics has 9 Policing principles within it which sets out the way the police should act in their jobs. The nine principles are:

1.   Accountability: You are answerable for your decisions, actions, and omissions [college of policing, 2014, p.3].

2.   Fairness: You treat people fairly [college of policing, 2014, p.3].

3.   Honesty: You are truthful and trustworthy [college of policing, 2014, p.3].

4.   Integrity: You always do the right thing [college of policing, 2014, p.3].

5.   Leadership: You lead by good example [college of policing, 2014, p.3].

6.   Objectivity: You make choices on evidence and your best professional judgement [college of policing, 2014, p.3].

7.   Openness: You are open and transparent in your actions and decisions [college of policing, 2014, p.3].

8.   Respect: You treat everyone with respect [college of policing, 2014, p.3].

9.   Selflessness: You act in the public interest [college of policing, 2014, p.3].

The code of ethics also includes a list of 10 Standards of professional behaviour which all officers should follow, Honesty and integrity, Authority, respect, and courtesy, Equality and diversity, Use of force, Orders and instructions, Duties and responsibilities, Confidentiality, Fitness for work, Conduct, Challenging and reporting improper behaviour. The combination of the policing principles and standards of behaviour helps to provide consistency between what people believe the police do, and what they actually do [college of policing, 2014, p.4].

# data[].attributes.body
throughout this assignment, I have explained what is corruption, integrity and ethics, as well as how they work within the police as an institution. I have used a mixture of news articles, books and articles to back up my points that I have made throughout my assignment. I have used the cases of Stephen Lawrence and Sarah Everard to better depicted incidents where the police demonstrated a corruption, as well as a lack of integrity and ethics.

# data[].attributes.body
BBC. (2018, may 14). Stephen Lawrence - What happened? What went wrong? [YouTube video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JruFrZtutkY [accessed on 24/02/2023]

Cliff Notes. (2023). Police corruption. https://www.cliffsnotes.com/study-guides/criminal-justice/police-problems/police-corruption#:~:text=Police%20corruption%20is%20the%20misuse,for%20not%20enforcing%20the%20law. [accessed on 24/02/2023]

College of policing. (2014). Code of ethics. https://assets.college.police.uk/s3fs-public/2021-02/code_of_ethics.pdf [accessed on 24/02/2023]

Dearden, L. (2023, February 14). Police officer failed to catch Wayne Couzens for flashing days before Sarah Everard murder. The Independent. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/wayne-couzens-sacked-sarah-everard-murder-b2281972.html [accessed on 24/02/2023]

Francis, T. (2022, March 1). Sasha Johnson: Family of Black Lives Matter activist shot at party make appeal after court case collapses. Sky News. https://news.sky.com/story/sasha-johnson-family-of-black-lives-matter-activist-shot-at-party-make-appeal-after-court-case-collapses-12554430 [accessed on 24/02/2023]

HM Inspectorate of Constabulary, (1999). Police Integrity. https://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmicfrs/media/police-integrity-19990601.pdf [accessed on 24/02/2023]

Human rights act 1998 [accessed on 24/02/2023]

Macpherson, W. (1999). The Stephen Lawrence Inquiry. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/277111/4262.pdf [accessed on 24/02/2023]

Morton, B. (2021, September 30). Sarah Everard: How Wayne Couzens planned her murder. BBC news. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-58746108 [accessed on 24/02/2023]

Newburn, T. (2017) Criminology (3rd ed.). Routledge. [accessed on 24/02/2023]

Oxford learners dictionaries. (2023). Corruption. https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/american_english/corruption#:~:text=%2Fk%C9%99%CB%88r%CA%8Cp%CA%83n%2F,Topic%20Collocations [accessed on 24/02/2023]

Oxford learners dictionaries. (2023). Ethic. [accessed on 24/02/2023] https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/american_english/ethic [accessed on 24/02/2023]

Police Act 1996 [accessed on 24/02/2023]

Syal, R. (2022, April 20). Met police culture problems ‘not just a few bad apples’, says acting head. The guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/apr/20/met-police-culture-problems-not-just-a-few-bad-apples-says-acting-head [accessed on 24/02/2023]