Metropolitan Police officers could be made to reveal if they are Freemasons to combat ‘mistrust’ police investigations.
It is considering whether to add the secretive fraternal organisation to its declarable associations policy.
Freemasons have to take an oath of loyalty to the fraternity’s principles and pledge to support fellow members.
This has led some staff to question whether membership could be impacting ‘investigations, promotions and misconduct’, Scotland Yard said.
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What are Freemasons and what conspiracies are they linked to?
The centuries-old ‘secret society’ has about six million members worldwide and about 200,000 in England and Wales.
Freemasons meet in ‘lodges’, where they carry out secretive initiation rituals and ceremonies.
They also don symbolic aprons and have various stages of membership which they move through.
The group give money to charity, and say they offer a space for making new friendships or contributing to ‘deserving causes’.
The group has also spawned wild conspiracy theories that they have been plotting world events from behind the shadows.
Conspiracists have claimed Freemasons were behind the French revolution, US dollar bill and allegations of corruption in the police and judiciary.
A huge range of influential people in history were members. The US President, George Washington, was one.
The Duke of Kent is a grand master of the United Grand Lodge of England.
The Met has never banned its officers from being Freemasons and does not collect information about how many are members.
However officers already have to declare past criminal convictions as well as past lawful professions such as journalism or private investigation.
They also have to reveal any association to groups that hurt the reputation of the force or compromise their integrity.
The move to add Freemasons to the list comes from an investigation into the 1987 murder of Daniel Morgan.
The private detective’s body was found with an axe embedded in his head, having been struck four or five times with the weapon in the car park of the Golden Lion pub in Sydenham, south east London.
It admitted in 2023 that the decades-long investigation was ‘marred by a cycle of corruption, professional incompetence and defensivenes’.
The 2021 report found officers’ membership of the Freemasons had been ‘a source of recurring suspicion and mistrust in the investigations’.
Cmdr Simon Messinger, of the Met, said: ‘We are now consulting on a proposal to add to that list involvement in Freemasonry – and potentially other organisations that could call impartiality into question or give rise to conflict of loyalties – and are keen to hear the views of our officers and staff.
‘This does not prevent any member of staff joining the Freemasons or another similar organisation, but it means we will know who is a part of it.
‘Strengthening the trust both our own staff and London’s communities have in the Met is a core part of our New Met for London plan and ambitions.’
London Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan has previously ruled out forcing officers to register their freemasonry membership, saying it could go against human rights.
The force will be discussing the proposal with the United Grand Lodge of England, the headquarters of Freemasonry in England and Wales.
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