Officers investigated for sexual and domestic abuse offences from 2020 to 2022

Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.23.028258

I note you seek access to the following information:

1. How many officers on your force are currently being investigated for sexual and domestic abuse offences? For each officer, please provide the number of offences

2. A list of closed investigations into officers for sexual and domestic abuse offences over the last three years, giving year of offence, offence, and outcome

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)&(3A)(a) - Personal Information: Absolute Exemption/Class Based

Reason for decision

Section 40(2)&(3A)(a) - Personal Information - of the Act provides that any information to which a request for information relates, is exempt information if the first condition of Section 40(3A)(a) is satisfied. The first condition of Section 40(3A)(a) states that personal information is exempt if its disclosure would contravene any of the data protection principles.

There are six principles that are set out in Article 5(1)(a) of the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) that dictate when the processing of personal data is lawful. The first principle requires that any processing of personal data must be lawful, fair and transparent. Under Article 6(1)(f) of the GDPR, the disclosure of personal data is considered to be lawful if:

a. There is a legitimate interest in the disclosure of that personal data.
b. The disclosure of the personal data is necessary to meet that legitimate interest.
c. The disclosure would not cause unwarranted harm to the data subject.

Having given regard to the legitimate interest test, I have found that:

a. The disclosure of the incident year for each record, would provide further factual information about the allegations of domestic abuse and sexual misconduct recorded by the MPS. Given the extraordinary powers that are granted to police officers in society, legitimate interests in transparency and accountability would be satisfied through the release of this information.

b. This disclosure of the requested personal data is necessary to satisfy the legitimate interest identified at point a.

c. The MPS employs over 34,000 police officers including those in the Metropolitan Special Constabulary. This number has remained relatively consistent over the last 3 years. A relatively small number of police officers employed by the MPS have been the subject of a domestic abuse or sexual misconduct allegation over this period. Given this, I have found that the release of the incident year for some records where a relatively small number of incident years have been recorded, would lead to identification. This would also provide information in respect of the outcome of each case of alleged misconduct. The risk of identification and the provision of personal data would be heightened within the MPS. The accused officers and the alleged victims would not expect the MPS to release information that would lead to their identification and the disclosure of their personal data, whether that be to the general public or to their MPS colleagues. This would be unexpected and distressing to them. Furthermore, identification may lead to unwanted and unsolicited intrusion from persons interested in the facts of each case. In this regard, I believe that disclosure of this personal data would be likely to cause unwarranted harm to the data subjects in this request. The information that may lead to identification has accordingly been grouped under this exemption.

Disclosure

I have disclosed the located information to you. Please find enclosed a spreadsheet in which the located information has been provided. In providing the enclosed spreadsheet to you, I have refused to provide the year of incident for cases where a relatively small number of incident years have been recorded, rather these years have been grouped. I have provided the information in this way as its release (without being grouped) would lead to identification and the provision of personal data.

DEFINITIONS
I have provided a number of definitions below to assist when reading the enclosed spreadsheet.

• UPP - Unsatisfactory Performance & Attendance of Police Officers.

• To AA for RPRP - To Appropriate Authority for Reflective Practice Review Process.

SECTION 16 - ADVICE AND ASSISTANCE
The MPS has published relevant information in response to a number of requests made about the alleged sexual misconduct of MPS employees under the Act. I have provided links to this information below.

Officers suspended/dismissed due to allegations of sexual misconduct - 01.FOI.21.018607

Serving officers accused of alleged sexual harassment/assault from 2010 to 2021 - 01.FOI.22.022899

Serving police officers accused of sexual offences and stalking from January 2019 to February 2022 - 01.FOI.22.023436

Additionally the MPS is to publish a dataset that will set out in detail, further information about the alleged sexual misconduct of police employees. This information will be published on the MPS Publication Scheme by the 31st of March 2023. 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.