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Commissioner faces major challenges to force's reputation over phone hacking and failures in public order and serious crime
The Metropolitan police commissioner, Sir Paul Stephenson, returns to his desk on Monday to face a series of challenges threatening the reputation of his force.
Stephenson, 57, has been off work since before Christmas after suffering a broken leg following surgery to remove a non-cancerous tumour from his femur. He is returning to work earlier than planned to be back in charge in time for the royal wedding next week.
Political sources told the Guardian that confidence in the ability of the Met to police public order events was low, after violence during the student anti-fees march last year and millions of pounds in damage caused by anarchists and activists during the recent TUC march.
Stephenson, who is all too aware of the criticism Scotland Yard has come under, is understood to want to stamp his authority on the force to ensure the policing of the royal wedding goes smoothly.
But he faces several other problems. His commander of counter terrorism, acting deputy commissioner John Yates, continues to be embroiled in the phone hacking controversy and has faced calls to resign; his public order officers have been criticised for the illegal kettling of protesters; and senior figures have been forced to make public apologies for failures in two major inquiries.
Several police sources have told the Guardian that Stephenson will have to sort out the serious tensions between his two most senior officers – Yates and acting commissioner Tim Godwin, who has been in charge of the force in Stephenson's absence. One senior source said divisions between the two men were being played out increasingly in the open within Scotland Yard.
"The commissioner's presence has been missed," said a police source. "There is a feeling that had he been here, some of these things would not have been allowed to get to this stage and there is a genuine sense of relief that he is back."
With more than 40 officers involved in the current phone hacking inquiry and the revelation in court last week by counsel for Scotland Yard that the number of potential victims was "substantially" more than 91, the pressure to come up with results is increasing.
Asked on Sunday about phone hacking in an interview on Sky, the prime minister refused to rule out a public inquiry. David Cameron said with a police inquiry continuing it was not the time to comment on whether it was necessary. He said the country had "independent" police and "independent" prosecutors and they should do their job.
"The law is perfectly clear ... phone hacking is illegal, quite rightly too, those who do it are wrong and prosecution is an option for the police," Cameron said.
Last week the high court ruled that the Metropolitan police broke the law in the way they kettled protesters at the G20 demonstrations in 2009. Judges found for protesters who had claimed police treated them unfairly and criticised the use of force by officers. The Met said it would appeal.
In the area of serious crime, Scotland Yard has repeatedly Earlier this month Godwin had to make a public apology to the family of Daniel Morgan after the collapse of a £30m inquiry into his murder in 1987.
And there was another apology over the police failures to catch Delroy Grant, the so-called night stalker, leaving him at liberty to sexually assault at least 23 more victims over 10 years.