Police Officers Suspended with Full Pay 2017 to 2020

Keywords

Officers, Suspended, Full Pay, Financial Years, Dismissed, Force, Cases

Publication number

PUB 1145

FOI reference number

15195

Request title

Police Officers Suspended with Full Pay

Date range

01.04.17 to 31.03.20

Information requested

I am writing to you under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to request the following information.

In the last three financial years how many officers were suspended with full pay?

How many were later dismissed from the force?

Disclosure with exemptions

Full Disclosure

Information correct as at

19.01.21

Date of disclosure

03.02.21

Related documents

N/A

FOI 15195 response

Having completed enquiries within Essex Police in respect of Section 1(1)(a), Essex Police does hold information relating to your request, Essex Police can confirm in respect of Section 1(1)(b) the following data:

In the last three financial years how many Officers were suspended with full pay?

23 Officers were suspended with full pay in the last three financial years.

How many were later dismissed from the force?

11 Officers were later dismissed from the Force, however, there are currently 7 cases still live.

You may also find the below of interest:

Essex Police regularly receive FOI requests regarding misconduct and complaints. The conduct of a Police Officer or a Police Staff member is an important issue and the following will provide further information.

Essex Police have an expectation that management and staff at all levels will lead by example, consistently displaying behaviour in line with the Code of Ethics 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. 

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/

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 if the complainant remains dissatisfied.  If local resolution is not appropriate and the complaint considered serious, the complaint will be investigated by the PSD. Essex Police can also refer matters to the IOPC who may decide to independently investigate certain cases.

Internal conduct cases (from 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.

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. This is an important issue and both the PFCC and the Police Service need to be accountable and transparent in regard to this issue, both regularly publish quarterly reports, which can be found via the following link:

http://www.essex.pfcc.police.uk/reporting/conduct-professional-standards/

Please note that the system used to manage complaints and investigations is designed to follow the national guidelines regarding reporting.  Statistics, therefore, follow the published guidelines based on set complaint codes A-Y and Misconduct Categories. Complaint and misconduct data is 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.

Additional mandatory referrals and requested reviews can also be viewed via the IOPC web site. The following link provides useful data and explains further regarding coding and strands of misconduct and complaints:

https://www.policeconduct.gov.uk/tags/essex-police

There are limitations in regard the type, terminology and detail of information that can be extracted and provided under the FOIA in addition to data already available and published. The FOIA does not require new data to be created in order to comply with a request, therefore, any request that falls outside of the above complaint coding and misconduct categories is likely to be qualify as the creation of data or potentially attract the excess cost exemptions.

To increase openness and transparency misconduct hearings are now held in public, (although in exceptional circumstances they can be held in private).  This decision was announced by the Home Secretary in the spring of 2015 and applies to all cases where an Officer is given notice to attend a hearing after May 2015.  Further information regarding misconduct hearings and upcoming hearings can also be found via the following links:

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

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