Shocking figures obtained by the Observer show roughly one in 100 police officers in England and Wales faced criminal charges, including for sexual offences, last year alone.
An Observer investigation has found that the Police Federation, the staff association for police officers, received 1,387 claims for legal support from members facing criminal charges in 2022.
The data also suggested that the number of officers facing criminal charges has skyrocketed by 590% since 2012. That year, just 235 claims were made for Police Federation legal support by its members.
The Police Federation of England and Wales represents around 140,000 former and serving police officers and spends millions of pounds a year in legal fees, which help defend those accused of severe misconduct or even criminality. The organisation is a statutory staff association, meaning all police officers become members by default when they join any force in England and Wales.
One campaign group said the federation was always ready to “defend the indefensible” and was a “major obstacle” to dealing with racism and misogyny in the police.
Last week, it was revealed that a former federation chairman, John Apter, would not face prosecution over two sexual assault allegations made against him. Apter was suspended by the Police Federation and by Hampshire Constabulary in December 2021.
The kind of criminal charges faced by police officers can range from misconduct in a public office and sending grossly offensive messages on a public network to more serious offences including assault, sexual offences and even murder.
The new data comes amid a growing number of cases of serious criminality by officers. Earlier this month, former Met officer David Carrick was jailed for life after he raped, assaulted and inflicted “irretrievable destruction” on at least 12 women.
In 2021, another serving police officer, Wayne Couzens, used his police ID and handcuffs to kidnap, rape and murder 33-year-old Sarah Everard. This month, it was revealed that the police missed clear chances to identify Couzens as a potential sex offender and a danger to women in the days, months and even years leading up to Everard’s murder.Last month, Metropolitan Police chief Sir Mark Rowley said it was “crazy” that he was unable as commissioner to sack “toxic” officers who have broken the law after it was revealed 150 officers were under investigation for sexual misconduct or racism.
The London mayor, Sadiq Khan, has now written to the home secretary asking her to urgently push through new laws allowing police chiefs to sack rogue officers on the spot. Although the Home Office is currently reviewing policing’s dismissal processes following the failure to remove Carrick as a serving officer, Khan is frustrated that existing laws mean that the Met is still being forced to employ officers who have committed serious offences.
Last week, it was revealed that a Met officer caught publicly masturbating twice on a train (and convicted of outraging public decency in 2018) was still serving after the force could only issue him with a final written warning.
The Met admitted last month it is looking at 1,000 sexual and domestic abuse claims involving about 800 of its officers saying that cases from the last 10 years “were being reviewed to make sure the appropriate decisions were made”.
Khan wrote to Suella Braverman on Friday, stating “it is incomprehensible to the public that under current regulations the Met can be required to reinstate serving officers convicted of a criminal offence”. A Home Office source said Khan’s intervention was an attempt to “cover up for years of failure in which as commissioner responsible for the Met police he has done very little”. A review of the police’s disciplinary system has months left to run, but Khan warns “profound changes to police vetting, conduct and misconduct processes are urgently needed”.Khan, responsible for setting the strategic direction and budget of the Met, writes: “This transformation must be supported by radical reform of the legislative framework to empower police chiefs and give them the tools they need to take fair and effective executive action to remove anyone falling short of the high standards expected by the police, community and the public.”
The Observer investigation also found a sharp rise in the number of misconduct and gross misconduct claims recorded by the Police Federation. The net total related to the two shot up from 418 in 2018 to 598 last year, a 43% rise.
Misconduct charges are less serious and relate to the breaking of workplace rules, while gross misconduct relates to more serious acts, including criminal actions, that could warrant immediate dismissal.
The two officers who shared photos of murdered sisters Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman and described the pair as “dead birds” both faced gross misconduct charges, before eventually being jailed for misconduct in a public office.
The data in question, disclosed in a Freedom of Information request, relates to claims made to the Police Federation for support by members. The Observer understands one claim can relate to a person facing multiple criminal charges at once.
While members could, in theory, make multiple requests for support in the same year, the Police Federation did not disclose if or how often this was the case.
The group refused to comment on any of the Observer’s other findings, or disclose what, if any, types of more serious criminal charges did not receive legal support from the organisation.
The figures are likely to be an underestimate given the number of police officers who may never face official criminal charges or who face official charges but don’t seek help from the Police Federation.
A spokesperson for police reform campaigners Netpol said: “For as long as we can remember, the Police Federation has portrayed its members as victims, quickly dismissing most complaints as frivolous and condemning critics of police misconduct. On the rare occasions when officers are sacked or, like Wayne Couzens and David Carrick, are convicted of the most abhorrent crimes, the Federation is quick to distance itself from these ‘bad apples’, despite the growing evidence of a flourishing and largely unchallenged police culture of racism and misogyny.
“Senior officers insist they intend to restore the damage to public confidence created by a wave of negative stories. On the face of it, the Federation’s willingness to continue to provide material support to an increasing number of officers facing criminal charges, many for sexual offences, makes it a major obstacle to ever achieving this. Yet more than any other staff organisation, it is genuinely representative of the current state of policing in Britain: unable to comprehend why change is needed and, without enormous outside pressure, always ready to defend the indefensible.” A spokesperson for fellow police reform campaign group StopWatch added: “We would not be surprised if the figures are an underestimate, the Federation rarely hold a mirror to themselves for accountability’s sake.
• This article was amended on 28 February 2023 to clarify that the 1,000 sexual and domestic abuse claims involving about 800 of the Met’s officers are from the last 10 years and the Met says they are “being reviewed to make sure the appropriate decisions were made”; that Rowley’s remarks related to “toxic” officers who have broken the law, not those “suspected of serious crimes”: and to clarify the details of the case of the Met officer caught publicly masturbating on a train.
