A government investigation has found that the leadership of all 43 police forces in England and Wales is plagued by nepotism — hiring and promoting officers because of who they know rather than what they can do. It also found that policing quality is wildly unequal depending on where you live, and that top officers aren't focused enough on actually preventing crime, according to The Guardian.

The Police Leadership Commission spent six months reviewing the situation with backing from the College of Policing and the government's Home Office. Two former senior politicians led the investigation: David Blunkett, a former Home Secretary, and Nick Herbert, who chairs the College of Policing. Both said the findings were deeply troubling. Blunkett used the word "staggeringly" to describe how bad some problems are.

What Did They Find?

The inquiry found problems throughout the entire system, not just in a few bad forces. The core issue: the way police officers get promoted is broken.

Officers move up the ranks because they know the right people, not because they're the most capable. This creates a cycle — leaders promote people like themselves, who then promote people like themselves. Talented outsiders rarely break in, and the same problems repeat endlessly.

The numbers tell the story. Only 13 out of every 100 junior officers said they worked for good leadership. Since 2018, authorities have investigated 78 senior police officers for misconduct. Eight chief constables — the highest rank — are currently under investigation or facing discipline. The official investigators report they keep finding the same issues: favoritism, family connections in hiring, sexual misconduct by officers abusing their power, and outright corruption.

One real example shows how bad it got. A former chief constable in Northamptonshire lied on his CV to get the job. He's now facing charges for fraud and misconduct.

The inquiry also found a "postcode lottery." Your chances of getting good police service depend entirely on where you live. The quality isn't down to money or local crime rates — it's because some police forces have much better leadership than others.

What's the Solution?

The inquiry made 27 recommendations. The biggest one: create a national police leadership school. Right now, each police force runs its own leadership training, and that's where favoritism sneaks in. A national school with the same standards everywhere could fix that.

The report also suggests fast-track programmes to find and train future leaders early, and more money for leadership training overall.

The idea makes sense on paper: if promotions now depend on who you know locally, a national system with fair rules could change that. But here's the catch: police forces have long had the power to run themselves locally. They might not accept a national body telling them who to promote. The government says it wants policing to become more national and coordinated, which would help, but whether police forces actually accept that is a different story.

The scope of what went wrong makes it hard to brush these problems aside as small fixes. When nine out of ten junior officers say they don't trust their leadership, that's not a complaint — that's institutional collapse. When 78 senior officers face investigation in eight years, that's not a few bad apples. That's a system-wide problem.

The fact that the government officially included this inquiry in its 2026 policing policy also matters. In the past, after big scandals like Hillsborough, police forces would get recommendations and then ignore the ones they didn't like. This time, because the government put the findings directly into its official policy, there's at least supposed to be accountability. But actually making sure forces follow through? That's the real test ahead.