Investigation into the conduct of a police inspector - Gloucestershire Constabulary, September 2015

Concern was raised that an Inspector serving with Gloucestershire Constabulary responsible for conducting reviews of the detention of persons held in custody was not carrying out the role appropriately. It was further alleged that other inspectors had been made aware of this inaction and had themselves failed to act. This came to our attention in September 2015.

Our investigation showed that the Inspector did not attend the custody suite to conduct any of the reviews under investigation. In addition, our investigation revealed that the same Inspector had also spent time when they were on duty using the force computer system to browse the internet, and that they had registered their work email address with external businesses, in a breach of force policy.

It also showed that the Inspector had used another officer’s system password to access areas of the custody software programme they did not have personal access to.

During the investigation, our investigators reviewed material relating to the manner in which the officer recorded that they had conducted reviews of detention.

Computer systems were examined to identify the activities the Inspector was involved in on the days when they were required to carry out reviews, and compared the manner in which they carried out the reviews with that of officers carrying out the same role.

The Inspector was interviewed and accepted they had not complied with policies relating to use of the force internet access and force email address.

The Inspector also accepted they had not attended the custody suite to carry out the reviews in person, saying they were operationally committed and unable to carry out the reviews in person.

We interviewed the officers who were alleged to have been aware of these activities. We also spoke to the officers who appeared to have provided their passwords to the Inspector.

Based on the evidence available, our Investigator concluded that there was sufficient evidence upon which a reasonable tribunal could conclude that the Inspector had a case to answer for gross misconduct for consistent and repeated breaches of Gloucestershire Constabulary policies relating to internet security, email security and computer network acceptable use.

We concluded our investigation in September 2017.

After reviewing our report, Gloucestershire Constabulary agreed that the Inspector may have a case to answer for gross misconduct, and arranged a gross misconduct hearing, which took place in winter 2018. At the time of the hearing, the Inspector had retired from the force. The panel found that the Inspector was guilty of gross misconduct and that they would have been dismissed from the force, had they still been in service. The Inspector was also placed on the barring list.