Disciplinary Proceedings Within the Professional Standards Department

Publication Title: Disciplinary Proceedings Within the Professional Standards Department

Publication Number: 1530

 

 

FOI Title: PSD Staffing Levels and Disciplinary Proceedings Information 

FOI Number: 18587

 

Information Request  

1) How many police officers and police staff currently work within your Professional Standards Department (PSD) (May 2023)?

2) How many police officers and police staff currently working within your Professional Standards Department (PSD) had disciplinary proceedings against them upheld before they began working in the PSD?

3) How many police officers and police staff currently working within your Professional Standards Department (PSD) had disciplinary proceedings against them upheld whilst working in the PSD?

 

4) Of those officers and staff who had disciplinary proceedings against them upheld, what was the nature of the allegations, according to the IOPC's categories as follows:

- Abuse of power/corruption

- Access and/or disclosure of information

- Delivery of duties and service

- Discreditable conduct

- Discriminatory behaviour

- Handling of or damage to property/premises

- Individual behaviours

- Police Powers, policies and procedures

- Sexual conduct

- Use of police vehicles

- Other

5) Of those officers and staff who had disciplinary proceedings against them upheld, what was the sanction?

 

FOI Duty

First Duty – Essex Police holds some of the information relating to your request

Second Duty – See below

Fact – Complaints as cases are individually identified, investigated and managed within the Centurion system by Professional Standards. Crime data is recorded on Athena – case management system

Essex Police record in line with police regulations 2020, home office guidance and IOPC Statutory guidance 2020

When a public complaint is received,  an investigating officer is assigned a case and a severity assessment is completed in conjunction with the Appropriate Authority,  depending on the level of assessment as set by regulations then a complaint may result in a conduct matter, gross misconduct or criminal charge. The assessment will continuously be reviewed together with management or the appropriate authority.

In February 2020 new regulations came into practice, and as such, new complaint strand headings were put in place which provide clearer understanding and extraction, the published guidelines based on the set 11 Complaint Categories A-L with 45 sub-categories and Misconduct Categories.  Complaint and misconduct data are recorded pre strand in a case.   It does not cover each Officer allegation within a separate complaint.  Each complaint or misconduct case is likely to have more than one complaint/misconduct strand or category and could include multiple Officers subject to a complaint strand. please see Statutory guidance on the police complaints system (policeconduct.gov.uk) or page 28 of the linked Guidance document below.  Guidance_on_capturing_data_about_police_complaints_Jan2021.pdf (policeconduct.gov.uk) (appendix A page 24) 

 

Exemption – Not applicable 

Disclosure – See below

Essex Police can report as follows:

Caveat: The data is correct as at 15 June 2023.

 

1) How many police officers and police staff currently work within your Professional Standards Department (PSD) (May 2023)?

Professional Standards Department, Essex Police

Police Officers = 28

Police Staff = 47

 

2) How many police officers and police staff currently working within your Professional Standards Department (PSD) had disciplinary proceedings against them upheld before they began working in the PSD?

Zero ( 0 )

 

3) How many police officers and police staff currently working within your Professional Standards Department (PSD) had disciplinary proceedings against them upheld whilst working in the PSD?

Zero ( 0 )

 

4) Of those officers and staff who had disciplinary proceedings against them upheld, what was the nature of the allegations, according to the IOPC's categories as follows:

- Abuse of power/corruption

- Access and/or disclosure of information

- Delivery of duties and service

- Discreditable conduct

- Discriminatory behaviour

- Handling of or damage to property/premises

- Individual behaviours

- Police Powers, policies and procedures

- Sexual conduct

- Use of police vehicles

- Other

Not Applicable

 

5) Of those officers and staff who had disciplinary proceedings against them upheld, what was the sanction?

Not Applicable

 

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.

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. Essex Police have an internal anonymous reporting tool, external and internal IAG, PSD Focus Groups, Professionalism Engagement Team set up to specifically tackle these issues. Data suggests reporting methods are working well and increased publication and transparency together with work both internally and externally with PSD is gaining and retaining trust  The following links have been provided to guide you to other sources of information published through OPFCC, NPCC, IOPC and on the Essex Police Website.

The force has developed a Professionalism Strategy as part of the Force Plan, which describes how, as individuals and collectively, the force can provide the best service to the public. Regular internal engagement events for both senior managers and all staff have been well received and reinforce a culture of inclusiveness, ethical behaviour and learning where staff flourish and have a sense of purpose.

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.  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.  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.  Please follow the following links to data available

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

In respect of violence against women girls (VAWG),  the PFCC have been working with the National VAWG multi-agency to analyse our data, the following article provides more context and information

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

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

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 who 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, taking into account national security, other ongoing investigations and any significant harm which may be caused to the individual or others. In the vast majority of cases, we expect that the information will be published. Barred list | College of Policing

 

 

FOI Title: Members of Professional Standards Department That Have Been Subject to Disciplinary Proceedings

FOI Number: 18617

 

Information Request  

Q1. How many officers currently (as of today, 18 May) work in the force’s unit that deals with professional standards. I believe this would be called the Professional Standards Department or the Directorate of Professional Standards, but the unit may have a different name.

Q2. Of those, how many have been subject to disciplinary proceedings?

Q3. For each case please share the following information

- The year of the disciplinary proceedings

- A summary of the allegation

- The outcome of the disciplinary proceeding (e.g. whether the allegation was upheld)

- What disciplinary action was taken, if any

 

FOI Duty

First Duty – Essex Police holds some of the information relating to your request

Second Duty – See below

Fact – Complaints as cases are individually identified, investigated and managed within the Centurion system by Professional Standards. Crime data is recorded on Athena – case management system

Essex Police record in line with police regulations 2020, home office guidance and IOPC Statutory guidance 2020

When a public complaint is received,  an investigating officer is assigned a case and a severity assessment is completed in conjunction with the Appropriate Authority,  depending on the level of assessment as set by regulations then a complaint may result in a conduct matter, gross misconduct or criminal charge. The assessment will continuously be reviewed together with management or the appropriate authority.

In February 2020 new regulations came into practice, and as such, new complaint strand headings were put in place which provide clearer understanding and extraction, the published guidelines based on the set 11 Complaint Categories A-L with 45 sub-categories and Misconduct Categories.  Complaint and misconduct data are recorded pre strand in a case.   It does not cover each Officer allegation within a separate complaint.  Each complaint or misconduct case is likely to have more than one complaint/misconduct strand or category and could include multiple Officers subject to a complaint strand. please see Statutory guidance on the police complaints system (policeconduct.gov.uk) or page 28 of the linked Guidance document below.  Guidance_on_capturing_data_about_police_complaints_Jan2021.pdf (policeconduct.gov.uk) (appendix A page 24) 

  

Exemption – Not applicable 

Disclosure – See below

Essex Police can report as follows:

Caveat: The data is correct as at 15 June 2023.

 

Q1. How many officers currently (as of today, 18 May) work in the force’s unit that deals with professional standards. I believe this would be called the Professional Standards Department or the Directorate of Professional Standards, but the unit may have a different name.

Professional Standards Department, Essex Police

Police Officers = 28

Police Staff = 47

 

Q2. Of those, how many have been subject to disciplinary proceedings?

Zero ( 0 )

 

Q3. For each case please share the following information

- The year of the disciplinary proceedings

- A summary of the allegation

- The outcome of the disciplinary proceeding (e.g. whether the allegation was upheld)

- What disciplinary action was taken, if any

Not Applicable

 

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.

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. Essex Police have an internal anonymous reporting tool, external and internal IAG, PSD Focus Groups, Professionalism Engagement Team set up to specifically tackle these issues. Data suggests reporting methods are working well and increased publication and transparency together with work both internally and externally with PSD is gaining and retaining trust  The following links have been provided to guide you to other sources of information published through OPFCC, NPCC, IOPC and on the Essex Police Website.

The force has developed a Professionalism Strategy as part of the Force Plan, which describes how, as individuals and collectively, the force can provide the best service to the public. Regular internal engagement events for both senior managers and all staff have been well received and reinforce a culture of inclusiveness, ethical behaviour and learning where staff flourish and have a sense of purpose.

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.  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.  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.  Please follow the following links to data available

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

In respect of violence against women girls (VAWG),  the PFCC have been working with the National VAWG multi-agency to analyse our data, the following article provides more context and information

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

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

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 who 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, taking into account national security, other ongoing investigations and any significant harm which may be caused to the individual or others. In the vast majority of cases, we expect that the information will be published. Barred list | College of Policing