Misconduct Proceedings (236A/22)
Request
For each calendar year 2019, 2020 and 2021 and the period 1st January 2022 to 14th February 2022, please answer the following questions:
- How many of your police officers faced misconduct or gross misconduct proceedings (i.e officers employed by your force at the time the alleged misconduct took place)?
- For each case, please provide the officer’s name (if permitted), rank and a description of the misconduct type (i.e sexual misconduct, assault, discriminatory behaviour, etc)
- For each case, please confirm the outcome of the misconduct or gross misconduct proceedings; any disciplinary action taken and whether the officer remains employed by your force
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.
REASON FOR DECISION
Please note that researching each individual case would exceed the appropriate limit (FOIA, s.12). For questions 2 and 3 we would need to conduct a manual trawl of all relevant cases, this search would exceed the FOI time limit.
Please also note: We have not provided officer’s names as this information would be exempt by virtue of S40 Personal Information.
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.