Sexual Misconduct (100A/23)
Request
Could you please tell me, in each calendar year from 2017-2021 (inclusive):
a) The number of police officers at your force who received an allegation of sexual misconduct or any other sexual offence.
b) The number of police officers who received such an allegation in each year, broken down by gender.
c) The number of police officers who received such an allegation in each year that were subsequently suspended or placed on restricted duties.
d) Where possible, the number of officers who received such an allegation in each year, broken down by result against the officer (dismissal, no further action taken, etc)
e) The number of officers who received such an allegation in each year, and were subsequently charged with an offence.
Response
Please find attached (100A_23_attachment.pdf).
We want our officers to uphold the highest of standards so the public has the utmost confidence in them.
Sexual misconduct or any other sexual offence is simply unacceptable but when it is done by a police officer – who holds a position of power and someone the public should trust – it must be rooted out and eliminated.
We must do everything we can to maintain public confidence and trust in policing.
This will provide reassurance to the public that we mean it when we say we’ll do all we can to preserve and rebuild trust.
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 attached, West Midlands Police can neither confirm nor deny that it holds any other information relevant to this request as the duty in Section 1(1)(a) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 does not apply by virtue of the following exemptions:
Section 40(5) – Personal information
Section 30(3) – Investigations and proceedings conducted by the public authority
Section 31(3) – Law enforcement
Section 38(2) – Health and safety
When citing Section 40(5), there is a requirement to consider whether disclosure would be fair. In this case release would not be fair and therefore Section 40(5) is classed as absolute and there is no requirement to consider the public interest.
In line with Sections 30, 31 and 38, I am required to complete a Prejudice Test/Public Interest Test (PIT) on disclosure. Please find this PIT attached (100A_23_PIT.pdf).
Further details of these exemptions can be found at the following link:
No inference should be taken from the above that any further information does or does not exist.