Misuse of Police computer systems (REF: 1675/26)

I would like to request the following information covering the period 1 January 2022 to the present.

Q1. The number of allegations, investigations or recorded cases involving police officers or police staff accessing police-held information or police systems without a legitimate policing purpose.

Q2. The number of recorded cases involving the unauthorised disclosure or sharing of information obtained through police-held information or police systems.

Q3. For each year, please state the outcome of those cases, including (where recorded) whether they resulted in misconduct proceedings, dismissal, resignation, a written warning, management action, criminal investigation or no further action

 

 

 

 

 

Response

Please find our response enclosed.

1. The number of allegations, investigations or recorded cases involving police officers or police staff accessing police-held information or police systems without a legitimate policing purpose.

There are 301 cases that have been recorded (37 complaints, 264 internal conduct) with an allegation of use of police systems without policing purpose between 01/01/2022 – 30/06/2026 

2. The number of recorded cases involving the unauthorised disclosure or sharing of information obtained through police-held information or police systems.

There are 337 cases that have been recorded (297 complaints, 40 internal conduct) with an allegation of disclosure of information between 01/01/2022 – 30/06/2026 

3. 3.      For each year, please state the outcome of those cases, including (where recorded) whether they resulted in misconduct proceedings, dismissal, resignation, a written warning, management action, criminal investigation or no further action.

Use of police systems outcomes

Misuse of systems

Outcome	2022	2023	2024	2025	2026	Grand Total
No Case to Answer	5	20	32	51	20	128
Case to Answer	14	13	32	14	0	73
Ongoing		2	3	23	30	58
Resolved	2		7	7	1	17
Discontinuance	1	3	3	1	0	8
The service provided was acceptable	3	1	1	2	0	7
No further action required	2	0	0	1	0	3
Not determined if the service acceptable	0	2	1	0	0	3
The service provided was not acceptable	0	0	1	1	0	2
De Recorded	0	1	0	0	0	1
Not Resolved - NFA	0	0	0	0	1	1
Grand Total	27	42	80	100	52	301

 

 

Case To Answer Outcomes:

 

NFA: 3

RPRP: 7

Regulation 13: 2

Retirement (So NFA): 2

Resignation (So NFA): 3

Written Warning: 3

Final Written Warning: 8

Reduction In Rank: 3

Dismissed: 12

Would Have Been Dismissed: 30

Disclosure Of Information

 

Outcome	2022	2023	2024	2025	2026	Grand Total
Resolved	17	21	27	27	11	103
The service provided was acceptable	32	19	9	15	9	84
The service provided was not acceptable	3	7	16	17	2	45
Ongoing	2	1	1	11	17	32
Not determined if the service acceptable	2	7	9	6	2	26
No Case to Answer	3	3	7	3		16
Case to Answer	2	6	4	2		14
No further action required	5	5		4		14
Not Resolved - NFA		3				3
Grand Total	66	72	73	85	41	337

 

 

 

 

 

 

Case to answer outcomes:

 

Resignation (NFA): 2

RPRP: 3

FWW: 1

Reduction In Rank: 2

Dismissed: 2

Would Have Been Dismissed: 4

Please note that this data should be interpreted with caution. Comparing numbers of incidents/crimes can be misleading and does not necessarily indicate the likelihood of someone being a victim of crime. In addition, the number of incidents/crimes recorded in an area over a period of time can be influenced by a number of factors. Consequently, statistics on incidents/crimes for one period may not necessarily be a good indicator of future incidents in that area.  

Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that this data has been extracted from a number of data sources used by forces for police purposes. The detail collected to respond specifically to your request may be subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale recording system. Consequently, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are considered when interpreting the data.  

The figures provided therefore are our best interpretation of data which has relevance to your request, but you should be aware that the collation of figures for ad hoc requests may have limitations and this should be considered when those data are used.  

If you decide to write an article / use the enclosed data, we would ask you to take into consideration the factors highlighted in this document so as to not mislead members of the public or official bodies or misrepresent the relevance of the whole or any part of this disclosed material.