Sunday 3 July 2022 11:48 AM Police Officers facing gross misconduct investigations can QUIT and get new ... trends now
Police officers under investigation for offences such as child sexual abuse and corruption can resign and take up other public roles elsewhere under current College of Policing guidelines.
The College of Policing has two lists, active since 2017, which contains the details of individual officers dismissed after an investigation into their behaviour, usually for gross misconduct.
Officers who are dismissed for gross misconduct whilst they are still employed by their police force are added to the 'barred' list, which prevents them from taking up another job in policing and certain other public jobs for at least five years.
But officers who choose to resign or retire from their role while under investigation are added to the 'advisory' list - which means they could get another public-facing job in the future.
Under the current system, officers who resign or retire while under investigation can seek other employment without a new employer being aware of the allegations made against them (Stock image)
The latest data from 2020-2021 showed 257 officers were barred from duty in one year, with the Met Police leading the way at 50 officers
Data from last year shows 38 officers were barred for abusing their position for a sexual purpose, 16 for assault, seven for child sexual offences or possessing indecent images of children and 20 for sexual misconduct or offences
While the barred list is open to the public to view, and employers to check, the advisory list is not - leaving potential employers potentially unaware of the allegations against the applicant.
The list is made available only to other police forces, the Home Office, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) and Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services.
If an officer is dismissed after the conclusion of an investigation they are then moved to the barred list - but as investigations can take years to complete former officers can generally find alternative employment before this happens.
Of the 257 officers placed on the barred list between April 2020 and March 2021, the latest data available, 46 per cent chose to resign or retire while under investigation - meaning they could seek alternative jobs before being added to the list.
Data shows for some forces all officers who were eventually placed on the barred list left the force while they were under investigation - for the 2020-2021 year this included Leicestershire, Suffolk and West Mercia forces.
The 257 officers barred from future policing jobs in 2020-2021 was a record high since the list began in December 2017 - and makes up just over 30 per cent of all 812
