The alarm went up about ten days ago when British police opened an investigation into up to 30 armed officers responsible for the security of Charles III at Windsor Castle - accused of sleeping on duty. The official explanation now is that the breach has been confirmed in 23 of them. Twenty-one have been removed from active duty, two have been moved to other residences, and the investigation is widening to Buckingham and the remaining royal palaces.

Adam Slonecki, leading the operation at Scotland Yard, has appealed for all officers to report any suspicious lapse. That is the language of a man who already knows the problem is not in one team, but in the system. Especially "at a moment when the threat level in Britain is severe and an attack is highly likely" - a statement institutions rarely make without concrete grounds.

Slonecki added something that in any institution would be a disaster: recently, guns had been left behind in front of the residence of the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan. Not one gun - guns. Plural. As may happen when armed officers are careless with their own weapons, so may it when they are guarding the head of state.

Windsor is not an unusual place for such incidents. In June 2025, an intruder under the influence of drugs jumped a wall and was arrested on suspicion of a break-in. On Christmas 2021, a man with a crossbow entered saying "I'm here to kill the queen". In November 2024, thieves stole a pickup and a quad from the estate and used them to crash through a security gate - the same night Prince William, Kate Middleton and the three children were sleeping at the nearby Adelaide Cottage. The Thames Valley Police investigation was closed last year without consequences.

Slonecki insists that most officers are conscientious, and he is probably right. But the castle is huge, and 23 sleeping officers is not a statistical slip - it is a pattern. The message from Scotland Yard to all staff today is clear: over the next 12 months every lapse will be examined under a microscope. For a British monarchy heading this year into the fifth year of Charles III as king, this is a blow at a level the palace rarely comments on publicly. And that is exactly why it is commenting.