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].

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.

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].

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]. 

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].

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].

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 ].

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].

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].

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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]