Types of complaints made against Police officers

Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.23.029076

I note you seek access to the following information:

Can you please provide me, under the Freedom of Information Act, the number and types of complaints against Police officers that were made to the Metropolitan Police complaints department in 2021 and 2022.

Also, the number of complaints that were upheld and of the latter, what action resulted.

I would also like to know if any data is collected on the ethnicity and/or gender of the complainants and if so how that compares to the breakdown between complaints dismissed and complaints upheld.

Also if there is any data collected on the subject of these complaints, for example how many complaints were about discrimination, violence, inappropriate behaviour, stop and search, etc.

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 31(1)(g) by virtue of (2)(b) – Law enforcement (Misconduct)
Section 40(2) - Personal information

Reason for decision

A Freedom of Information Act request is not a private transaction. Under Freedom of Information, any information disclosed is released into the wider public domain, effectively to the world, not just to one individual. To disclose the requested information could publicly reveal information about an individual or individuals, thereby breaching the right to privacy afforded to persons under the Data Protection Act 1998.

Section 40 – Personal Information - under Section 40(2) and (3) of the Act, public authorities are able to withhold information where its release would identify any living individual and breach the principles of the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA). I have claimed this exemption because if we were to disclose some of the information pertaining to the table that details –

The ethncity, type description of the alleagtions, outcome and year in a correlated format would present a strong risk of identification of individuals because of the low count within some ethnicities, which would breach the right to privacy afforded to persons under the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA) and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

The victims of these offences would not reasonably expect this information to be published by the MPS and I have found that as no prior consent has been given to release this personal data any release would accordingly be unfair. In the case of legitimate processing, it is therefore not appropriate to release this information.

Such information would be internally sensitive and that there is a high likelihood of individuals being identifiable and the potential for the information to be combined with related information known to, or accessible by police officers and staff. This would be unwarranted as they would reasonably expect information relating to alleged misconduct to be held in confidence and not be disclosed for a non-law enforcement purpose.

Section 31(1)(g) by virtue of (2)(b) Law Enforcement - In considering whether or not any further information should be disclosed, I have considered the potential harm that could be caused by any further disclosure. To release any further information into the public domain, whereby the investigation may be recent or ongoing would be detrimental and adversely impact upon the ability of the MPS to obtain information in connection with future investigations and/or inquiries.

The MPS is unable to disclose any further information which has been or is being used as part of an investigation. There is a legal requirement to refrain from disclosing any further information which would place the integrity of an investigation or any future investigations at risk.

The MPS has a statutory role in establishing whether any person has failed to comply with the law. It also, in reviewing police action in specific cases, performs a key role in ascertaining whether any person is responsible for any conduct which is improper.

The release of police information that is linked to such investigations, would be likely to adversely impact upon the ability of the MPS to obtain information in connection with future investigations and/or inquiries. This would occur because those involved directly or indirectly in the investigation, would not expect the MPS to make this information publically available under the Freedom of Information Act in connection with such investigations and would erode the trust in the police service in carrying out such functions.

I consider that the benefit that would result from the additional information being disclosed does not outweigh the considerations favouring non-disclosure in this case.

I consider the public interest has been met in this case by the information already provided in this response. This decision is based on the understanding that the public interest is not what interests the public, but what would be of greater good to the community as a whole.

Disclosure

Please see attached document which has been presented to ensure that no harm is caused to investigations (those await outcome) by this disclosure which will include current investigations and personal information.