Abuse of position for sexual gain from 2018 to 2022

Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.23.030130

I note you seek access to the following information:

Please only include February 2020 onwards
1. How many police officers and staff in your force have been reported for 'abuse of position for sexual gain' from January 2018 to the end of December 2022?
2. How many of these reports resulted in any sort of professional disciplinary action of an officer or staff member?
3. How many of these reported officers/staff were removed from their job for 'abuse of position for sexual gain'?
4. How many of these reported officers/staff members are still part of your force?
5. Please provide a breakdown of the positions of these officers/staff members who have been reported, i.e. how many sergeants, how many constables, etc.

Decision

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

Please find below information pursuant to your request above.

Q1 - How many police officers and staff in your force have been reported for 'abuse of position for sexual gain' from January 2018 to the end of December 2022?

A total of 70 police officers and staff were reported between February 2020 and December 2022.

Q2 - How many of these reports resulted in any sort of professional disciplinary action of an officer or staff member?

A total of 08 reports resulted in professional disciplinary action.

Q3 - How many of these reported officers/staff were removed from their job for 'abuse of position for sexual gain'?

A total of 1 employee was removed for this offence.

Q4 - How many of these reported officers/staff members are still part of your force?

A total of 69 employees are still part of the MPS. 29 of these still await an outcome.

Q5 - Please provide a breakdown of the positions of these officers/staff members who have been reported, i.e. how many sergeants, how many constables, etc.

A breakdown of the positions of officers/staff who have been reported is as follows:

Constables	43
Police Staff	2
Sergeant & Above	18
Unidentified	7
Grand Total	70

Please note that the above represents allegations, which is an interpretation of officer/staff behaviour at the incident. Please note that potentially, there can be multiple allegations on one incident. Allegations are counted against the borough of the incident.

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.