Officers – Sexual Misconduct Allegations (165A/23)
Request
How many officers in the force have faced sexual misconduct allegations since 1 January 2019?
Could this total be broken down by nature of allegation i.e. sexual harassment, sexual assault, rape?
Could the total figure be broken down by year and by current status i.e. ongoing investigation by professional standards, ongoing investigation by IOPC, awaiting misconduct hearing, officer received written warning, officer dismissed?
How many of the allegations have resulted in criminal charges?
Response
Please find attached (165A_23_attachment.pdf).
At West Midlands Police, we take these matters extremely seriously and we want to be really clear that there is no place in policing for these behaviours.
Sexism and misogyny are simply unacceptable especially when it is done by a police officer who holds a position of power and someone the public should trust.
We are taking action to root out and take action against those who are misogynistic, racist or homophobic or who have disrespectful attitudes and behaviours, there is simply no place for this sort of individual in policing.
We want our officers to uphold the highest of standards so you have the utmost confidence in them.
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.
If you decide to write an article / use the enclosed data we would ask you to take into consideration the factors highlighted in this document so as to not mislead members of the public or official bodies, or misrepresent the relevance of the whole or any part of this disclosed material.
In addition to the above and attached, West Midlands Police will neither confirm nor deny that we hold any other information in relation to your request, as the following exemptions apply:
Section 30(3) – Investigations and proceedings conducted by the public authority
Section 31(3) – Law enforcement
Section 38(2) – Health and safety
Details of these exemptions can be found at the following link:
In line with the exemptions above, I am required to complete a Prejudice Test/Public Interest Test (PIT) on disclosure. Please find this PIT attached (165A_23_PIT.pdf)
No inference should be taken from this refusal that any other information relative to your request, does or does not exist.