Police contact investigated after officer pursues relationship with woman – Sussex Police, September 2020

A police officer and a police community support officer (PCSO) were tasked with dealing with problems reported by the occupants of a block of flats, including drug use and noise.

The officers were helping two of the residents to progress a civil injunction against one of the occupants and were liaising with the residents daily.

The PCSO told the police officer that one of the residents – a woman – felt intimidated and scared by the occupant they were bringing a civil injunction against. He also described the woman as insecure and dependent. The police officer volunteered to act as the woman’s main point of contact.

The police officer and the woman had daily contact and began messaging through the officer’s work email and mobile phone. This progressed to sending sexually explicit photographs and messages, with the relationship turning to sexual activity soon after.

The relationship ended after the officer and the woman were seen in public by a fellow police officer. The officer blocked the woman and stopped all contact.

The officer contacted the woman once more as he needed her to sign documents about the civil injunction. The woman actively avoiding do so, saying the way the relationship ended made her feel embarrassed and impacted her ability to trust people.

One of the other residents involved in the civil injunction reported the woman’s relationship with the police officer to the PCSO. The report was escalated to the force’s professional standards department.

We received a conduct referral from the force and decided to independently investigate the officer’s contact with the woman. We examined whether the officer used his position as a police officer to engage in an inappropriate relationship with the woman, the nature of contact between the officer and the woman, and if the officer’s actions were in breach of local or national policies, guidance or legislation.

We concluded there was no indication that the officer committed a criminal offence but had behaved in a manner to justify disciplinary proceedings.

We found that the officer had a case to answer for gross misconduct for pursuing an inappropriate sexual and emotional relationship with the woman, who he met through the course of his duties as a police officer. We also found he wilfully and purposefully pursued that relationship knowing it was inappropriate.

The woman was a potential victim and witness to ongoing anti-social behaviour. She was potentially concerned about this behaviour and scared by it, making her vulnerable to a power imbalance and increasing the officer’s responsibility to maintain professional boundaries.

The officer had, almost immediately before the relationship began, taken a training course which clearly outlined what the expectations were as a police officer and the responsibility not to form a personal relationship with anyone met through the course of policing duties.

We shared our report with the force, who agreed. We decided that disciplinary proceedings should be brought against the officer and that they should take the form of a gross misconduct hearing.

The misconduct hearing concluded in August 2025. The officer was found to have breached the police standards of professional behaviour for authority, respect and courtesy, honesty and integrity, and conduct. These amounted to a finding of gross misconduct and the officer would have been dismissed without notice had he still been a serving police officer.

We carefully considered whether there were any learning opportunities arising from the investigation. We make learning recommendations to improve policing and public confidence in the police complaints system and prevent a recurrence of similar incidents.

We did not identify any organisational learning in this case.