All 43 recruits for new police recruitment program flunk exam as they couldn’t use handcuffs

A NEW program designed to fix London’s horrendous murder rate has backfired after all 43 police recruits fail their first test.

AN ENTIRE group of trainee cops failed their first exams because they didn’t know how to use handcuffs.

All 43 dud recruits were enrolled in the Metropolitan Police Service’s Detective Constable Pathway course in London.

The direct entry course for detective constables is the first of its kind in the UK, and was designed to address a 15 per cent shortfall of detectives in the English capital.

• Boss’s shocking 12.30am email

• ‘Lazy little s**ts’: Recruiter slams Gen Y

• Scammer couple hit back at ‘witch hunt’

It was also developed in a bid to counteract the city’s recent serious spike in murders, knife and gun crime.

On Monday, London’s 2018 homicide rate rose to 59 following the unrelated stabbings of a young dad and a woman in her 30s within 30 minutes of each other.

According to Express, London’s murder rate has risen 40 per cent in just three years.

And in February, the city’s murder rate was higher than that of New York for the first time in history.

A source told The Sun that not a single recruit had been taught how to operate handcuffs properly before they sat the exam.

“There were also problems with them knowing how to use personal protective equipment like batons and sprays and fitness levels were not what they should have been in some cases,” the source said.

“It wasn’t their fault because they had never received any training in basics an ordinary constable would have received.

“It has held them all back and successful recruits won’t get postings for another couple of months. It has caused quite a panic.”

Metropolitan Police Service Federation branch chairman Ken Marsh told The Sun he was “concerned” by the flunked recruits.

“We opposed this direct entry scheme from the beginning,” he said.

“This failure to pass basic safety assessments only highlights how right we are to be concerned.”

However, a Metropolitan Police Service spokesperson told the publication the course had attracted a “good standard” of candidates.

[e-mail]

Originally published as All 43 recruits for new police recruitment program flunk exam as they couldn’t use handcuffs