Police staff and officers reported for stalking from 2018 to 2022

Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.23.028162

I note you seek access to the following information:

• How many police officers and staff in your force have been reported for stalking from January 2018 to December 2022?

• How many of these reports resulted in any sort of professional disciplinary action?

• How many of these reports resulted in a conviction?

• How many of these reported officers/staff were removed from their job?

• How many of these reported officers/staff members are still part of your force?

Clarification - 

“I am almost ready to send your data to you. A question has however arisen with your data that I am hoping you can answer please?

You initially asked for police officers reported for stalking over the requested period. The analyst that produced your data has explained that there is a stalking flag on Centurion (the system used to recorded misconduct allegations against MPS employees) that is used to record instances of reported stalking. They have further explained that the stalking flag can on occasions, be used incorrectly to highlight cases that involve harassment as opposed to stalking. Stalking and harassment whilst similar, are different types of behaviour. Further information about stalking and harassment can be found on the MPS website below.

MPS website - What is stalking and harassment?

Can I check that, in referring to stalking, whether you solely wanted instances of stalking or did you want cases that involved harassment as well? Once you have confirmed this, I will either get the data amended to reflect your request or ensure that appropriate explanations/caveats are included in our response to you.”

Clarification - 

“Could you include just stalking instances not harassment.”

Decision

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

Please find below information pursuant to your request above.

I have disclosed the located information to you in the section of this notice titled ‘Information Disclosed’ below. It should be noted that the data used to answer your request was extracted from the MPS complaints, conduct and discipline system (Centurion) and was based on cases that had the stalking flag attached to the record. The summary of each recorded case was then read to determine its relevance to this request for information.

How many police officers and staff in your force have been reported for stalking from January 2018 to December 2022?

78 police officers and members of police staff.

How many of these reports resulted in any sort of professional disciplinary action?
How many of these reported officers/staff were removed from their job?

6 police officers and members of police staff were the subject of ‘Formal Action’ 2 officers/staff members were dismissed without notice and 1 officer/staff member received a sanction of ‘would have been dismissed’. 3 officers/staff members await outcomes.

How many of these reports resulted in a conviction?

1 officer/staff member received a conviction.

How many of these reported officers/staff members are still part of your force?

54 police officers/staff members subject of a stalking allegation are still serving with the MPS. It should be noted that an allegation does not mean that the police officer/staff member was guilty of the alleged behaviour.

SECTION 16 - ADVICE AND ASSISTANCE
The MPS is to publish a dataset that will set out in detail, information about the alleged sexual misconduct of police employees. This information will be published on the MPS Publication Scheme shortly. I have provided a link to the MPS Publication Scheme below.

MPS Website - Publication Scheme

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.