Officers investigated for sexual offences and domestic violence from January 2020 to September 2023

Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.23.032341

I note you seek access to the following information:

The number of Met police officers investigated for allegations of domestic abuse for the years 2020, 2022 and 2023, broken down by:
1. Year
2. Outcome of investigation
3. Role/rank, e.g. what unit, response, child protection, domestic violence (not exhaustive)
4. Sex of the officer investigated, and sex of the person who made allegations

The number of Met police officers accused/investigated for indecent exposure for the years 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023, broken down by:
1. Outcome of complaint/investigation
2. Rank/role of officer
3. Sex of officer

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)(a)(b)&(3)(a)(i) – Personal Information

Reason for decision

The Section 40(2) Exemption has been utilised due to low numbers. Where we believe that these could lead to the identification of individuals, numbers between 1 & 4 have been replaced with [xx]. This constitutes personal data which would be in breach of the rights provided by the DPA (Data protection Act) 2018 and GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), if released.

It is important to note that a Freedom of Information Act request is not a private transaction. Both the request itself and any information disclosed are considered suitable for open publication, that is, once access to information is granted to one person under the Act, it is then considered public information and must be communicated to any individual should a request be received. Any information released under the Act is also published on the MPS website.

Section 40(2)(a)(b) and (3)(a)(i) - Personal Information - In order to apply the Section 40(2) exemption the disclosure of the requested information must satisfy either the first, second or third conditions as defined by subsections 3(a), 3(b) and 4(c) of the Data Protection Act 2018.

The first condition ensures that the exemption would apply in circumstances where the disclosure of the information would breach any of the Data Protection Act 2018 principles.

There are six Data Protection principles set out in the 2018 act and these can be found at section 34.

In this instance, where numbers are low (between 1 & 4) and we believe that these could lead to the identification of individuals, these numbers have been replaced with xx as its release would be incompatible with the first Data Protection principle which states that the processing (in this case the disclosure) of the data must be both lawful and fair.

Disclosure

Please find below the data requested, with the exception of the low numbers referenced above.

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.