Warrant Card Misuse - 1855/22

Date Responded 31 January 2023

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:

1. The number of police officers that have been investigated for misusing their warrant cards in the calendar years of 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and available information for 2022.

2. For each recorded case, please can you provide details of the incidents that led to formal and informal sanctions, and the outcome of that action. Please specify which incidents relate to which outcomes and in which year the incidents took place.

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 with the caveats to be noted as follows:

• The information has been extracted from a ‘live’ database and may be subject to the addition and deletion of complaints, complainants and subjects after the initial extraction of data used for the purposes of this request.

• Data has been checked for allegations recorded between 1 January 2017 to 29 December 2022. The following allegation type descriptions; Abuse of position for financial purpose, Abuse of position for other purpose, Assessing and handling of information, Corrupt Practice, Disclosure of Information, Discreditable conduct and Use of Police systems were searched and a key word search was conducted under the allegation summary for the words “warrant card”. Professional Standards Department records for Misconduct hearings have also been reviewed.

• Results include allegations made against serving Northumbria Police Officers. All alleged reports have been counted regardless of the outcome of any investigation and include cases that have been subsequently withdrawn by the complainant or where the disapplication process has been applied.

Year	No Reports
2017	2
2018	2
2019	1
2020	1
2021	1
2022	0

Year	Type	Outcome
2017	Whilst off-duty, an officer has produced their warrant card to staff at a public house. It is alleged that at this time the officer was drunk, they produced their warrant card without good reason and behaved in a manner that discredits the police service and undermines public confidence.	No case to answer Context – Officer had identified themself as a police officer to deal with concerns about a 3rd party.
2017	Complainant alleges an off duty officer identified themself as a police officer, therefore putting themself on duty and verbally abused, made threats of violence and threatened to arrest Complainant.	Written Warning
2018	It is alleged that an officer, whilst off duty has been involved in an incident with a member of security staff where they have identified themself as a police officer.	Case to answer- Meeting - No action Context – It cannot be established on the balance of probabilities that the misconduct took place.
2018	It is alleged that an officer has identified themself as a Police Officer to employees of a shop and used abusive and threatening language towards them.	Case to answer - Meeting - Management Intervention Context – It cannot be established on the balance of probabilities that the misconduct took place.
2019	Complainant alleges an officer abused their position as a police officer whilst off-duty by presenting their warrant card in order to intimidate those involved in the incident and manipulate the situation.	Reflective Practice Context – Officer identified themself as a police officer as they believed 3rd party would not furnish their details following an RTC they were involved in.
2020	Complainant alleges that whilst collecting a fare the officer has approached their vehicle and began to verbally abuse them before proceeding to show their warrant card.	Complaint withdrawn
2021	It is alleged that whilst PC X was off-duty and drunk they showed staff at a Club their Northumbria Police warrant card and told them that they were working.	Written Warning

Disclaimer

Due to the different methods of recording information across 43 forces, a specific response from one constabulary should not be seen as an indication of what information could be supplied (within cost) by another. Systems used for recording these figures are not generic, nor are the procedures used locally in capturing the data. For this reason responses between forces may differ, and should not be used for comparative purposes.

The information we have supplied to you is likely to contain intellectual property rights of Northumbria Police. Your use of the information must be strictly in accordance with the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 (as amended) or such other applicable legislation. In particular, you must not re-use this information for any commercial purpose.