Complaints of Racist Abuse by Staff or Officers 2019 to 2022

Keywords

Complaints, Racist, Abuse, Staff, Officers, Disciplined, Allegations.

Publication Number

PUB 1494

FOI Reference Number

17789

Request Title

Complaints of Racist Abuse by Staff or Officers 2019 to 2022

Date Range

2019 to 2022

Information Requested

How many complaints of racism has your force received in which a police officer has made a complaint of racist abuse (this can either be verbal or via email or text) against a fellow officer or member of police staff? Please could you give figures for the calendar years: 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022 up until November 24?

How many officers have been disciplined as a result of these racist allegations and what was the result of that this disciplinary action? Again, please could you provide the figures for the years listed above.

Disclosure with Exemptions

Full Refusal with Section 12 Exemption

Information Correct as at

02 December 2022

Date of Disclosure

07/12/2022

Related Documents/Links

N/A

FOI 17789 Response

FOI Duty  

First Duty – Essex Police does hold information relating to all of your request.

Second Duty – See below

Fact – See below

Exemption – Not applicable

Essex Police can report as follows:

Caveat: The data is correct as at 02/12/2022.

In Feb 2020 new regulations came into practice, and as such new complaint strand headings. 2020_Statutory_Guidance

Regarding data pre Feb 2020, some allegations are recorded under other categories, a keyword search has been used to extract those allegations as the description headers were broader and did not allow for specific criteria you have requested to be extracted easily from a strand heading. There will therefore be a degree of inaccuracy in the data extracted based on the terminology and interpretation used in the summary.

Question 1:

Data range 2019 to 2022 – ONE

Question 2:

Date range 2019 to 2022 – ONE

Management Action for PC will be in the form of;

1. An apology to colleague
2. PC to read and understand the Code of Ethics
3. PC to be debriefed about his behaviour by a suitably identified line manager. This line manager PC has a full understanding of the code of Ethics and be able to give examples of how it intertwines with every day policing
4. Entry to be made on PC’s day book within the PDR of conversation.
 
Details have been redacted from the above, as provision of this information could identify the officer who was subject to the allegation and the individual against whom the remark was made. Section 40(2) Section 40  Personal Information Section 40(2) applies to third party personal data.  Any identifiable data would not be released under the Freedom of Information Act where the release would breach the data protection principles contained within the Data Protection Act. Within principle 1, data should be processed in the following way to comply with the principles, Lawful, Fair and Transparent. Disclosure through FOI would not be fair to the individuals that could be recognised from the above scenario. 

Every effort is made to ensure that the data provided by Essex Police is accurate and complete.  However, Essex Police systems are designed primarily for the management of individual cases and not for the purposes of providing data to answer specific FOI enquiries.  Please note although data can be extracted from a number of sources via database queries, the results may be subject to inaccuracies.  Care should be taken to understand our return when considering the interpretation or further use of the data.

Outside of the act you may find the following of additional interest -   

The conduct of a Police Officer or a Police Staff member is an important issue and Essex Police regularly receive FOI requests regarding misconduct and complaints both the PFCC and the Police Service need to be accountable and transparent regarding this issue.  

There is an expectation that management and staff at all levels will lead by example, consistently displaying behaviour in line with the Code of Ethics | College of Policing and ensuring adherence to legal requirements and to all Essex Police policies, procedures and practices.  Through Prevention, Intelligence, Enforcement, Communication and Engagement, Essex Police is committed to making sure the opportunity for corruption is reduced to the lowest possible risk.  Where corruption is identified the organisation will deal with it proportionately and effectively.    

In addition, the Essex Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner (PFCC) holds the Police Force to account and has the legal power to hold the Chief Constable to account.   

In respect of violence against women girls (VAWG), Essex Police, the Fire and Crime Commissioner have been working with the National VAWG multi-agency to analyse our data and provide a data return. The following article will provide more context and information 

Policing violence against women and girls - National framework for delivery: Year 1 (npcc.police.uk) 

Data is regularly published via quarterly reports including strand splits and summary of outcomes, please click on the following link: Conduct & Professional Standards - Essex Police, Fire & Crime Commissioner (pfcc.police.uk) 

Misconduct hearings and upcoming hearings: https://www.essex.police.uk/advice/advice-and-information/mis/misconduct-hearings/  

FOI Publications: https://www.essex.police.uk/foi-ai/af/accessing-information/published-items?q=misconduct  

Complaints process: A member of the public can lodge a complaint regarding conduct with the Professional Standards Department (PSD), please see below link: https://www.essex.police.uk/advice/advice-and-information/c/complaints/  

Internal conduct cases (staff v staff) are managed by Human Resources (HR) who will, if necessary, refer to PSD for formal assessment.  If formal misconduct is identified, HR will manage the investigation, however, PSD will decide on whether there is a case to answer through a disciplinary process.  Dependant on the circumstances, it can be in various forms, from an informal warning to a formal disciplinary hearing.  Formal misconduct cases are recorded by PSD on the conduct database. If individuals are dismissed, they are entered onto a barring list which means they will never work for a policing organisation again. 

If a complaint is about the conduct of a Police Officer or member of Police Staff made from a member of the public, the complaint will be managed by PSD and dealt with by either the policing area or department it relates to, through a local resolution or a local investigation.  This can subsequently be appealed to either the Chief Constable or the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) depending on the specifics of the individual case and if the complainant remains dissatisfied.  If local resolution is not appropriate and the complaint is considered serious, the complaint will be investigated by PSD.  Essex Police can also refer matters to the IOPC who may decide to independently investigate certain cases.  

Additional mandatory referrals and requested reviews can also be viewed via the IOPC web site.   

Investigations | Independent Office for Police Conduct 

Search | Independent Office for Police Conduct 

Where an individual has been dismissed, the force will send a report, containing information set out in Regulations, to the College of Policing. The College will then update the barred list with those details. The same process will be used for the advisory list. 

The College will make decisions on whether it is appropriate to publish the information on the barred list, considering national security, other ongoing investigations and any significant harm which may be caused to the individual or others. In many cases, we expect that the information will be published. Barred list | College of Policing