guardian.co.uk,
Press Association, Monday 2 January 2012
The Metropolitan police had the most convictions among their officers. Photograph: Arthur Turner/Alamy |
More than
900 serving police officers and community support officers have a criminal
record, official figures show.
Forces
across England and Wales employ officers with convictions for offences
including burglary, causing death by careless driving, robbery, supplying
drugs, domestic violence, forgery and perverting the course of justice.
Those with
criminal records include senior officers, among them two detective chief
inspectors and one chief inspector working for the Metropolitan police.
At least
944 serving officers and police community support officers (PCSOs) have a
conviction, according to the figures released by 33 of the 43 forces in England
and Wales in response to freedom of information requests.
Many forces
could not provide details of criminal records dating from before their staff
joined the police, meaning the true figure will be significantly higher.
The Met,
Britain's largest force, headed the list with 356 officers and 41 PCSOs with
convictions.
It was
followed by Kent police (49), Devon and Cornwall police (44), Essex police
(42), South Yorkshire police (35), Hampshire police (31) and West Midlands
police (27), although not all the figures are directly comparable.
The
criminal records include:
• Devon and
Cornwall police: a constable convicted of burglary as a teenager.
• Essex
police: one inspector convicted of dangerous driving; another inspector of
possessing and supplying cannabis; a detective constable convicted of robbery;
a constable convicted of data protection breaches for viewing intelligence
records relating to friends, relatives or other people living in the local
area, and a special constable convicted of stealing a set of car number plates,
putting them on another vehicle and obtaining petrol without paying.
• Hertfordshire
police: a sergeant convicted of dangerous driving.
• Kent
police : a constable convicted of perverting the course of justice in 1998.
•
Merseyside police: five officers convicted of assault and one of causing death
by careless driving.
• Norfolk
police: a constable convicted of causing death by careless driving.
• North
Wales police: an officer convicted of forgery.
•
Staffordshire police: an inspector convicted of assault causing actual bodily
harm and a constable convicted of keeping a dangerous dog.
• Surrey
police: a detective constable convicted of obstructing police officers; a
constable convicted of wounding; a constable convicted of drink-driving in 1988
and resisting arrest a decade later, and a constable convicted over animal
suffering in 2006.
Most of the
convictions are for traffic offences such as speeding and drink-driving, but
the records also include a South Yorkshire police officer convicted of fishing
without a licence.
Home Office
guidelines issued in 2003 say police officers should have "proven
integrity" because they are vulnerable to pressure from criminals to
reveal information.
The
guidance says forces should reject potential recruits with convictions for
serious offences – including causing actual bodily harm, burglary, dangerous
driving and supplying drugs – unless there are "exceptionally compelling
circumstances".
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