MPS Officers investigated for drug offences, racial and homophobic hate crimes
Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.22.026977
I note you seek access to the following information:
Request 1:
The total number of Met police officers who are currently being investigated for drug offences.
Could you please include specifics of those drug offences in your response.
Request 2:
The total number of Met police officers who are currently being investigated for racial hate crimes.
Request 3:
The total number of Met police officers who are currently being investigated for homophobic hate crimes
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)(a)(b)(3)(a)(i)(ii)(b) – Personal Information
Reason for decision
Section 40(2)(a)(b)(3)(a)(i)(ii)(b) – Personal Information
I have made the decision to disclose the total number of Met police officers who are currently being investigated for drug offences, as requested at your question 1, however, I am unable to provide any further information in relation to the specifics of those drug offences as additionally requested at your question 1, as any further disclosure would be highly likely to identify an individual and release personal information into the public domain. Full responses to questions 2 and 3 have been disclosed.
Section 40(2)(3) of the Act, which exempts personal information from disclosure has therefore been engaged.
Section 40(2)(3) is an absolute and class based exemption if to release the information would breach the third party’s data protection rights. In this case to release this personal information would not constitute fair processing of the data. As this exemption is class based I am not required to identify the harm in disclosure and in this instance I believe that the right to privacy outweighs any public interest in release.
Section 40(2)(a)(b)(3(a)(i)(ii)(b) - Personal information - Section 3 of the Data Protection Act 2018 confirms that information which relates to an identified or identifiable living individual is Personal Data. The Freedom of Information Act provides an exemption for Personal Data and this is known as the section 40 exemption.
The information you have requested is considered by the MPS to be personal to the officers concerned. Where the request is seeking access to third party personal data the section 40(2) exemption may be engaged.
In order to apply the Section 40(2) exemption the disclosure of the requested information must satisfy either the first, second or third conditions as defined by subsections 3(A), 3(B) and 4(A) of the Data Protection Act 2018.
The first condition ensures that the exemption would apply in circumstances where the disclosure of the information would breach any of the Data Protection Act 2018 principles.
There are six Data Protection principles set out in the 2018 act and these can be found at section 34. In this instance I have decided that the disclosure of the Personal Data would be incompatible with the first Data Protection principle which states that the processing (in this case the disclosure) of the data must be both lawful and fair.
Disclosure
Please see the below table for information pursuant to your request.
Request 1:
The total number of Met police officers who are currently being investigated for drug offences.
Could you please include specifics of those drug offences in your response.
(Sec40 – Personal Information exemption applied)
Request 2:
The total number of Met police officers who are currently being investigated for racial hate crimes.
Request 3:
The total number of Met police officers who are currently being investigated for homophobic hate crimes
| Live Conduct Matters Officer | Count |
| Drug Offences | 22 |
| Race Offences | 100 |
| Homophobic Offences | 15 |
It should be noted that the data provided in the table above has been taken from Centurion (the Met’s complaint, conduct and discipline system) and relates to live conduct matters as of the 23 November 2022. A conduct matter is any matter which is not and has not been the subject of a public complaint, where there is an indication (whether from the circumstances or otherwise), that a person serving with the police may have committed a criminal offence or behaved in a manner which would justify disciplinary proceedings.
The following searches were conducted within Centurion to locate records relevant to this request.
• For drug offences - live conduct matters where the factors (i.e. a case marker/flag and case summary) were equal to drugs and a keyword search for drugs.
• For racial hate crimes - live conduct matters where the allegation was discrimination and the discrimination type was race.
• For homophobic hate crimes - live conduct matters where the allegation was discrimination and the discrimination type was homophobic or sexual orientation.
Maintaining Public Trust in the MPS
Securing and maintaining the trust of the community is integral to the principle of policing by consent and to continue to do so, the MPS recognises that its staff must act with professionalism and integrity. The MPS treats each occasion when an allegation is made about the conduct of its staff extremely seriously and will fully investigate each incident to determine whether the conduct of that member of staff has breached the standards of professional behaviour. Where the conduct of staff is proven to have fallen below the standards of behaviour expected, the MPS will take robust action to ensure that its staff are held to account and that lessons are learnt from each case. Any instance where the conduct of our staff is alleged to have fallen below the standards of behaviour expected is treated extremely seriously by the MPS.