Calls for police ethics crackdown and positive discrimination in recruitment The police ethics inquiry and recommendations follow a series of scandals, including the revlations in the Hillsborough independent panel report. Photograph: PA Chief constables, who earn up to 10 times the salary of their officers, should be fined if they breach a new national code of ethics and integrity, a Commons committee has recommended. An investigation by the home affairs select committee into the standards of police leadership in England and Wales, after a series of scandals involving the most senior officers, found a patchwork of training, standards and accountability countrywide. While the pay of rank and file police officers has been frozen since 2010, chief officers are earning up to 10 times the salary of the lowest ranks, the investigation revealed. The highest paid is Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, commissioner of the Metropolitan police, whose salary is £260,088, followed by the new chief constable of Essex, Steven Kavanagh (£192,000), Sir Peter Fahy, the chief constable of the Greater Manchester force (£191,191), Thames Valley's Sara Thornton (£171,214) and Norfolk's Philip Gormley (£167,967). Keith Vaz says the College of Policing must produce a code of ethics and integrity for all police officers. Photograph: Murdo Macleod for the Guardian Police and crime commissioners earn between £65,000 and £100,000 a year, while the suggested starting salary for constables is £19,000. Keith Vaz, the committee's chairman, said the piecemeal nature of standards within the police service had to be unified for the first time by the new professional body, the College of Policing. In the study of training, standards, accountability of senior officers, diversity and morale, the committee said national standards needed to be devised by the College of Policing. It demanded more transparency around the dismissal of senior officers, misconduct proceedings and sanctions for those officers who retire to escape misconduct hearings. Vaz said the College of Policing must produce a code of ethics and integrity for officers, who would be required to obtain a certificate of knowledge in policing to formalise standards and training across the country. Chiefs who did not follow the guidance should be liable to fines and disciplinary proceedings. The inquiry was launched after a series of scandals involving the police, including the revelations in the Hillsborough independent panel report and ongoing investigations into at least 10 chief officers in England and Wales. In October, Sean Price became the first chief constable to be sacked in 35 years after he was found guilty of gross misconduct after a corruption inquiry. His deputy, Derek Bonnard, was dismissed in March for gross misconduct. "Every day, thousands of officers show absolute commitment to their work and go beyond the call of duty to safeguard the public," the report says. There is a flipside to public perceptions of the police prompted by examples of misconduct and criminality within their ranks ... and there is an undercurrent of discontent within the service itself, as reform and spending cuts affect the sense of worth of ordinary officers. Several senior officers are calling for the law to be changed to allow positive discrimination in recruitment to boost the numbers of ethnic minorities within the service. Photograph: Alamy Vaz repeated calls by senior officers, including Fahy, for the law to be changed to allow positive discrimination in recruitment to boost the numbers of officers from ethnic minorities. The committee said it was "deeply alarmed" by thecomplete absence of officers from a black or minority ethnic background on the strategic command course for future senior officers. The MPs' report recommends the creation of a register of interestsheld by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) for all chief constables and police and crime commissioners, and says a register of dismissed officers should be held by the College of Policing and every force should be made to publish misconduct hearings on their websites. There should be sanctions for officers found guilty of grave misconduct offences, in the form of a scale of fines to be docked from pensions, and register of those who have been dismissed by one force or retired to avoid disciplinary hearings, the report says. "No officer should see retirement as a get-out-of-jail-free card," the report said.," There were eight exceptional investigations under way costing more than £23m as a result of police failings, the investigation revealed. Vaz called for these inquiries to be handed to the HMIC and Independent Police Complaints Commission. "The police should not be investigating the police," he said. Broken systems of accountability and a patchwork of police standards and training have allowed a minority of police officers to get away with corruption and incompetence which is blighting an otherwise excellent service with dedicated officers. The new landscape of policing requires a new type of police officer ready to meet the new challenges. Honesty, integrity and transparency are essential to components of the policing DNA.