Should police personnel disclose membership of the Freemasons? Neil Parpworth explores a telling case
- This article examines a case in which a legal challenge was brought against a decision by the Metropolitan Police Service commissioner to require personnel to disclose membership of organisations such as the Freemasons.
- Chamberlain J refused permission to apply for judicial review.
Writing in 1989, Roger Graef observed:‘Whether justly or not, Freemasonry is now widely regarded both inside and outside the police force as another form of corruption. As it is a secret organisation, rumours abound about preferments for jobs and promotion, protection from prosecution, destruction of evidence and many other, more ordinary forms of favouritism’ (Talking Blues: The Police in their Own Words (1989) Fontana, p329).
Recently, a legal challenge was brought against a decision made by the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) commissioner to amend the force’s declarable associations policy, so as to require police officers and staff to disclose (in confidence to the local professional standards unit) that they either are, or have been, members of ‘an
