Allegations of internal misconduct matters from April 2016 to March 2021

Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.22.023255

I note you seek access to the following information:

This FOI relates to internal misconduct allegations made against police officers and special constables in your force – known as “conduct matters”.

1. Please state the total number of alleged conduct matters recorded by your force in each of the following years: 2016/17, 2017/18, 2018/19, 2019/20, 2020/21

2. Please provide a further breakdown of the yearly totals above by the nature of allegations – i.e. racial discrimination, gender discrimination, harassment, sexual harassment, corruption (please use most detailed allegation category/description possible within the time constraints of FOI legislation)

3. For the year 2020/21 only, please state the number of alleged conduct matters recorded by your force broken down by a combination of nature of allegation AND final outcome (whether misconduct/gross misconduct was found and action taken i.e. no action, written warning, dismissal)

Decision

I have today decided to disclose the located information to you in full.

Please find below information pursuant to your request above.

Please find enclosed a spreadsheet in which the located information has been provided.

Officer/Staff Allegations: The spreadsheet provided in the main, is broken down by ‘officer allegations'. Officer allegations refer to the number of separate allegations recorded against police officers. For example, a member of the public is restrained by three police officers. The member of the public is unhappy and complains alleging that they were assaulted by the three police officers. This is one case (i.e. one incident), one allegation (i.e. one allegation of assault) and three officer allegations (i.e. one allegation per officer).

Allegation Categories
It should be noted that the allegation categories for recording alleged misconduct changed in February 2020. As a result, a number of the allegation categories in this spreadsheet will have zero (0) allegations recorded in financial years 2016/17, 2017/18 and 2018/19.

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 appropriately disciplined 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.