Alleged crimes by serving officers from May 2019 to April 2022

Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.22.024909

I note you seek access to the following information:

I wish to know the number of reports you have received of alleged crimes by serving officers in the past three years (1 May 2019 to 30 April 2022)?

For each report please list:
1. The alleged offence
2. Rank of the officer accused
3. Whether the offence was investigated
4. The outcome (accusation proven or not, any criminal proceedings, disciplinary actions taken, and whether they are still serving?)

Decision

I have today decided to disclose some of the requested information. Some data has been withheld as it is exempt from disclosure and therefore this response serves as a Refusal Notice under Section 17 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the Act) by virtue of the following exemptions:

Section 40(2) & 40(3A)(a) – Personal Information

Reason for decision

A Freedom of Information Act request is not a private transaction. Both the request itself, and any information disclosed, are considered suitable for open publication. This is because, under Freedom of Information, any information disclosed is released into the wider public domain, effectively to the world and not just to one individual.

Section 40 is an absolute and class-based exemption and if a request for information relates to third parties, it is absolute under Section 40(2) if disclosure would breach any of the data protection principles. There is therefore no requirement to either evidence harm in disclosure or conduct a public interest test.

Section 40(2)(3A)(a) – Personal Information - The requested dataset contains personal information which we have redacted. We believe that the public release of this information in full would provide persons intent on disrupting the work of the MPS with information that would assist them to do so.

The provision to refuse access to information under Section 40(2)(a)(b) and (3A)(a) of the Act is both absolute and class based. When this exemption is claimed, it is accepted that harm would result from disclosure. There is accordingly no requirement to demonstrate what that harm may be in refusing access to information.

Section 40(2)(a)(b) of the Act provides that any information to which a request for information relates, is exempt information if the first condition of Section 40(3A)(a) is satisfied. The first condition of Section 40(3A)(a) states that personal information is exempt if its disclosure would contravene any of the data protection principles. If the disclosure of the requested personal data would not contravene the data protection principles, the disclosure must also not contravene Sections 3A(b) and 3B of the Act.

There are six principles that are set out in Article 5(1)(a) of the General Data Protection Regulations (UK GDPR) that dictate when the processing of personal data is lawful. The first principle requires that any processing of personal data must be lawful, fair and transparent. Under Article 6(1)(f) of the UK GDPR, the disclosure of personal data is considered to be lawful if:

a. There is a legitimate interest in the disclosure of that personal data.
b. The disclosure of the personal data is necessary to meet that legitimate interest.
c. The disclosure would not cause unwarranted harm to the data subject.

Whilst some individual members of the public may feel there is to some degree a legitimate interest in the disclosure of the redacted personal information, there is not an overwhelming legitimate interest in the full disclosure in consideration of the data in that has been disclosed today, which demonstrates accountability and transparency is important to the MPS. The rationale for non-disclosure of certain low level data regarding staff based on the fact there is little necessity to disclose this data to meet a legitimate interest and that disclosure may cause unwarranted harm in its disclosure to the individuals to which the data refers.
Whilst there is an inherent legitimate interest in making information available upon request, disclosure is not necessary to satisfy the legitimate interest in disclosure and may cause unwarranted harm to one or more data subjects. Consequently, it would be disproportionate to disclose the redacted information.

Disclosure

Please find the attached dataset which answer this FOIA request.

ADDITIONAL ASSISTANCE
We take any police-perpetrated abuse incidents extremely seriously and they are regularly scrutinised at a senior level. Any allegation, disclosure or abuse perpetrated by an officer or member of staff is robustly investigated. Tackling violence and sexual offences is a priority for the Met, and that includes when our own officers or staff are accused of these. We will not hesitate to bring forward prosecutions and disciplinary procedures where there is evidence to do so as the public rightly expect the highest standards from our employees.

Additionally, please also find a link to the MPS Statistics & Data page of our website. This provides information which may be of interest to you.