11986 Officers and PCSO's with convictions
I write in connection with regards to your request received in this office on 3rd June. I note you seek the following:
(For questions 1 to 4 below) For each of the calendar years 2017, 2018 and 2019 and the period 1st January 2020 to 2nd June 2020, could you please tell me the following:
1) How many police officers or PCSOs employed by your force were convicted of a criminal offence (i.e. they were employed by your force at the time of the offence)?
2) For each police officer or PCSO convicted of a criminal offence, could you tell their name, rank and offence they were convicted of? If you're unable to tell me their name, please provide their rank and the offence they were convicted of only.
3) For each police officer or PCSO convicted of a criminal offence, could you tell me the court penalty they were given (e.g. imprisonment, suspended imprisonment, fine, etc)?
4) For each police officer or PCSO convicted of a criminal offence, could you tell me the formal action taken by your force against the officer (e.g. dismissed without notice, written warning, no action, etc) or whether they resigned or retired?
Additional questions
5) In total, how many police officers or PCSOs currently employed by your force have a criminal conviction? If you're unable to provide this information, please tell me the number of serving police officers convicted of a criminal offence while employed by your force who remain employed by your force.
6) For each serving police officer or PCSO with a criminal conviction listed in your answer to question 5, could you tell me their rank and the offence they were convicted of?
Section 1 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) places two duties on public authorities. Unless exemptions apply, the first duty at Section 1 (1) (a) is to confirm or deny whether the information specified in a request is held. The second duty at Section 1(1) (b) is to disclose information that has been confirmed as being held. Where exemptions are relied upon Section 17 of FOIA requires that we provide the applicant with a notice which: a) states that fact b) specifies the exemption(s) in question and c) states (if that would not otherwise be apparent) why the exemption applies.
Having made enquiries within the Force regarding your request we have been advised that there is not a list of this information and if held it is recorded on the personal file of each employee and checked as part of the periodical vetting process however to provide the information would require either the manual retrieval and reading of every personal record or vetting form and it is estimated that this would take in excess of the appropriate time stipulated by the Secretary for Constitutional Affairs, Lord Falconer on the 18th Of October 2004, that is, eighteen hours. This falls under the exemption of 'Compliance exceeding the appropriate limit' covered by Section 12 (1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and as such this work could not be undertaken. Therefore, please treat this as a refusal notice under S17 of the Freedom of information Act. In accordance with Section 16 of the Act I have a duty to provide advice and assistance on this occasion I am unable to offer assistance as reducing the time specified would still take over the time period specified. However the College of Policing publishes information in regards to barred lists.
Please note that all statistical data supplied in relation to Freedom of Information requests is a snapshot of data held at the time the request was received by the Freedom of Information office and is subject to constant change/updates.
The Cleveland Police response to your request is unique and it should be noted that Police Forces do not use generic systems or identical procedures to capture and record data therefore responses from Cleveland Police should not be used as a comparison with any other force response you receive.
If you are not satisfied with this response or any actions taken in dealing with your request you have the right to request an independent internal review of your case under our review procedure. The APP College of Policing guidance states that a request for internal review should be made within 20 working days of the date on this response or 40 working days if extenuating circumstances to account for the delay can be evidenced.