Police officers fatally injured in road traffic collisions when travelling home from a shift

Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.24.038832

I note you seek access to the following information:

Could you please supply the number of police officers fatally injured in road traffic collisions from your force when travelling home from a shift, specifically ones having finished a night shift or similarly physically demanding shift wholly or partly conducted during unsocial hours.

Could you also advise whether police officers are encouraged to take a short period of sleep if they feel fatigued or whether such a ‘power nap’ would be subject to action plan, management action 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 21(1) – Information reasonably accessible by other means.

Reason for decision

At your Question 1 you have asked us to disclose the number of MPS police officers fatally injured in road traffic collisions when travelling home from a shift, specifically having finished a night shift or similarly physically demanding shift wholly or partly conducted during unsocial hours.

Please be advised that whilst we do hold a list of officers who have died on duty (including officers who have died travelling to and from work, which, for officers, is considered as ‘on duty’), this is not held to the level of granularity that you are seeking. For example, the time of day that an officer died is not recorded; nor is information about the shift/type of work an officer was conducting before their death.

However, there are several websites that publish information in relation to officers killed on duty and which disclose more information in relation to the officers concerned, than we hold. To assist and for your convenience I have provided a link to a recommended site below:

Metropolitan Police – Police Remembrance Trust (policememorial.org.uk)

As the information is reasonably accessible by other means the exemption provided by Section 21 of the Act has been applied to partially refuse disclosure in this case.

The information requested has been identified as being accessible via other means as it is already published. Where information is already in the public domain, we are not required to re-publish the data; instead, public authorities are required to direct you to the information, which we have done in this instance.

Disclosure

Q2 - Could you also advise whether police officers are encouraged to take a short period of sleep if they feel fatigued or whether such a ‘power nap’ would be subject to action plan, management action etc.

We do not teach or encourage naps, etc.

There is a small section in “Roadcraft” (The police drivers’ book, that all drivers are tested on before a driving course) that advises coping strategies. In the book it refers to “rest breaks;” however, this is then down to interpretation.

Unfortunately, we do not hold a copy of Roadcraft, but it is available for purchase via various retail outlets.