Provision of information held by Northumbria Police made under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the 'Act')
As you may be aware the purpose of the Act is to allow a general right of access to information held at the time of a request, by a Public Authority (including the Police), subject to certain limitations and exemptions.
You asked:
I write to request the number of allegations of domestic abuse and sexual misconduct (including rape) made against serving police officers between January 2017 and June 2022.
As part of this, I would like the information to be broken down into the following:
i) The number of allegations of domestic abuse and sexual misconduct, (including rape) made against serving police officers each year – from January 2017 to June 2022, including a grand total;
ii) The sex and gender of each officer against whom an allegation was made;
iii) The number of allegations that were upheld and resulted in disciplinary action – including dismissal, and the number of allegations that were discontinued;
iv) The number of officers against whom allegations were made are still serving police officers.
In Response:
Following receipt of your request, searches were conducted with the Professional Standards Department of Northumbria Police. I can confirm that the information you have requested is held by Northumbria Police.
I am able to disclose the located information to you as follows, with the caveats below noted.
• Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from a number of data sources used by forces for police purposes. The detail collected to respond specifically to your request is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large scale recording system. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when interpreting those data.
• The figures provided therefore are our best interpretation of relevance of data to your request, but you should be aware that the collation of figures for ad hoc requests may have limitations and this should be taken into account when those data are used.
• The following data has been collated from internal records held and maintained by the Professional Standards Department.
• Data has been grouped by the year of recording the alleged incident and not necessarily when the incident took place.
• Please note that the data has been presented in such a manner as to avoid the application of exemptions relevant under the Act (Section 40 – Personal Information) to withhold due to the potential for an individual to be identified, and these will not be broken down further.
• Q1 may include a number of cases which are live and still under investigation and depending on the outcomes could subsequently change the answers in Q3.
• Please note the 2 x No Further Action outcomes in 2020:
o Case 1: Following initial investigation credible evidence to show the allegation was without foundation.
o Case 2: Complainant withdrew support for investigation.
• Practice Requiring Improvement (PRI) – underperformance or conduct not amounting to misconduct or gross misconduct, which falls short of the expectations of the public and the police service as set out in the policing Code of ethics.
• Reflective Practice Review Process (RPRP) – the new part of the regulations and guidance setting out the process that should be followed for handling PRI.
|
Year |
Q1 |
Q2 |
Q3 |
Q4 |
|
2017 |
8 |
1 x Female 7 x Male |
2 x Dismissed 5 x No Case To Answer 1 x Written Warning |
5 |
|
2018 |
14 |
1 x Female 13 x Male |
2 x Management Advice 4 x No Case To Answer 8 x No Misconduct Identified |
13 |
|
2019 |
6 |
6 x Male |
1 x Dismissed 1 x Management Advice 1 x No Misconduct Identified 3 x Not Upheld |
5 |
|
2020 |
17 |
1 x Female 16 x Male |
2 x Dismissed 1 x Live 2 x No Further Action 3 x No Misconduct Identified 1 x Not Determined If The Service Acceptable 3 x RPRP 3 x The Service Provided Was Acceptable 1 x Withdrawn 1 x Written Warning |
13 |
|
2021 |
19 |
4 x Female 15 x Male |
1 x Dismissed 11 x Live 2 x No Action 3 x RPRP 1 x Service Provided Was Acceptable 1 x Withdrawn |
18 |
|
2022 |
14 |
1 x Female 13 x Male |
10 x Live 2 x No Misconduct Identified 2 x RPRP |
14 |
