Sunday 22 May 2022 10:37 PM New police shock as figures show 200 officers disciplined for illegally looking ... trends now
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More than 200 police officers and staff have been caught illegally accessing photos of crime scenes, suspects and details of cases.
The revelation follows outrage last year when two Scotland Yard officers were revealed to have photographed murdered sisters Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman as they manned a police cordon.
PCs Deniz Jaffer and Jamie Lewis were jailed in December for more than two years after sharing the pictures on social media.
But now figures from police forces show that scores of other officers secretly viewed and downloaded photographs from crime scenes, exhibits, body-worn video cameras and post-mortems in 2020-21. More than 200 officers and staff were caught illegally accessing their force’s database for details about crimes, suspects, witnesses and victims.
Statistics released under Freedom of Information law show 123 officers and 80 civilian staff were disciplined for breaching police rules on database security – nearly four people every week. The true figure is likely to be higher as only 32 out of 44 forces in England and Wales responded to requests.
In a quarter of cases the culprit was either fired or resigned before the case went to a disciplinary hearing but many
