Police officers convicted of criminal offences from June 2015 to December 2023
Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.24.034923
I note you seek access to the following information:
1. The names of the officers convicted.
2. The sentence they received.
3. Whether they were allowed to remain in the Metropolitan Police.
ORIGINAL REQUEST
How many serving police officers have been convicted of criminal offences between June 2015 and December 2023. What offences were they convicted of? (Calendar years)
Decision
I have today decided to disclose some of the requested information. I have disclosed the answers to questions 2 and 3. 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 Data
Reason for decision
Section 40(2)&(3A)(a) - Personal data - To disclose The names of the officers convicted would publicly reveal information linked to individuals which would contravene Data Protection principles. The Data Protection Act 2018 defines personal data as any information relating to an identified or identifiable living individual. There are six data protection principles set out in section 34 of the DPA 2018 and under Article 5(1)(a) of the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR). The first principle requires personal data to be processed in a ‘lawful and fair’ manner. The basis for determining what constitutes lawful and fair is outlined under section 35 of the DPA. Under section 35(2) it states:
- the data subject has given consent to the processing for that purpose, or
- the processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out for that purpose by a competent authority.
It is important to note that we do not have the consent of the data subjects and the release of the data will not be used for a law enforcement process. Under Article 6(1)(f) of the GDPR, the disclosure of personal data is considered to be lawful if:
- There is a legitimate interest in the disclosure of that personal data.
- The disclosure of the personal data is necessary to meet that legitimate interest.
- The disclosure would not cause unwarranted harm to the data subject.
You have requested the names of officers who have been convicted. By means of a legitimate interest test I have considered the release of the personal data, and I have found that:
- Supplying the requested information would provide a factual answer to this request. The legitimate interest in transparency would be further satisfied through the release of this information.
- To provide all of the request data would reveal whether an individual had been the subject of a police investigation. In the event of an individual being employed by the MPS, who has then been subsequently investigated or is under investigation and convicted, they have a legitimate expectation that the MPS would not publicly release and publish information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 that would that they work for the organisation and/or whether they had been the subject of a police investigation. The information would cause damage and distress to the data subject.
Disclosure
*Note that since the previous request numbers have slightly increased. To keep close continuity the data is still run from June 2015 to 10 December 2023
| Sentence Type | Year | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Subject Count | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | Grand Total |
| Awaits | 1 | 4 | 5 | 10 | ||||||
| Absolute Discharge | 1 | 1 | ||||||||
| Binding Over | 1 | 1 | ||||||||
| CSO | 2 | 7 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 30 | |
| Compensation | 3 | 3 | ||||||||
| Conditional Discharge | 3 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 18 | ||
| Deferred Sentence | 1 | 1 | ||||||||
| Disqualification | 9 | 8 | 8 | 4 | 11 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 49 |
| Fine | 3 | 5 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 2 | 7 | 5 | 3 | 46 |
| Imprisonment | 3 | 11 | 9 | 7 | 5 | 1 | 14 | 7 | 10 | 67 |
| Licence Endorsed | 4 | 6 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 19 | |||
| Other | 1 | 4 | 1 | 6 | ||||||
| Suspended Imprisonment | 1 | 3 | 9 | 3 | 6 | 3 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 34 |
| Grand Total | 25 | 47 | 46 | 34 | 4 | 9 | 36 | 25 | 22 | 85 |
| Still Serving |
Year | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Subject Count | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | Grand Total |
| Yes | 4 | 14 | 6 | 6 | 9 | 2 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 52 |
| No | 21 | 33 | 40 | 28 | 32 | 7 | 31 | 22 | 19 | 233 |
| Grand Total | 25 | 47 | 46 | 341 | 41 | 9 | 36 | 25 | 22 | 285 |
* Please note that some of the still officers may still be pending misconduct hearing so number could change
Please note, of the 52 officers still serving (shown in table 2) 36 offences relate to traffic offences. Other offences include Criminal Damage, Sexual offence and Violence against the person.
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.