Disciplinary Sanctions (540A/23)
Request
How many officers received any kind of disciplinary sanction in the
(i) 2020/21 and (ii) 2021/22 year as a result of a complaint of
(a) racism, or (b) sexism/misogyny?
2. Please state what disciplinary action was imposed for each of the cases referenced in Question 1.
3. In relation to all the incidents in Q.1 where specific racist or sexist/misogynistic words or phrases were used please
(i) state what these words or phrases were and (ii) the specific disciplinary sanction imposed on the officer.
4. How many complaints of racism were made against your force by members of the public in
(i) 2019/20 and (ii) 2020/21?
Response
Our data are not organised in such a way as to allow us to provide this information within the appropriate (cost) limit within the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act (see ‘Reason for Decision’ below).
Although excess cost removes the force’s obligations under the Freedom of Information Act, as a gesture of goodwill I have supplied information, relative to your request, retrieved before it was realised that the fees limit would be exceeded (see attached). I trust this is helpful, but it does not affect our legal right to rely on the fees regulations for the remainder of the request.
It is important to note the force operates under the Police Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Behaviour. This includes challenging any inappropriate behaviour or action which would discredit the police service or undermine public confidence in policing.
Our Professional Standards department, take a robust stance and are committed to rooting out abuse of power, criminality and corruption whenever we find evidence of it. This is done by carrying out thorough investigations, offering support and dealing appropriately with anyone found to be acting in an inappropriate manner.
REASON FOR DECISION
Please note that researching each individual case would exceed the appropriate limit (FOIA, s.12).
In relation to question 1, there is no allegation recorded that is categorised as ‘misogyny’, discrimination is recorded but misogyny as a category is not. Therefore, in order for us to find misogyny related complaints, it would involve manually reviewing each complaint individually and determining whether or not that case relates to misogyny. In 2020 alone, approximately 4000 complaints were received. It would take approximately 10 minutes to review each case, this would take around 600 hours.
In addition, for question 3, we are also unable to answer this question. To identify the phrases used would involve going through each case of racism, this would involve manually reviewing in excess of 300 records, which will take approximately 10 minutes to review and would equate to around 50 hours work, these searches would exceed the FOI time limit.
The cost of compliance with the whole of your request is above the amount to which we are legally required to respond, i.e. the cost of locating and retrieving the information would exceed the appropriate costs limit under section 12(1) of the FOI Act 2000. For West Midlands Police, the appropriate limit is set at £450, as prescribed by the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004, S.I. 3244.