UK Police Abuse Their PCs

The Metropolitan Police was seen misusing their PCs, including some who were even passing information over to criminals. Over 300 officers and staff were found, some of them leaking intelligence to a gangster linked to firearms, some passing on data over drugs, and some obtaining PC information “'to assist in criminality”.

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According to the report, one of the coppers even made “inappropriate sexual comments about children” online, searched for porn on Metropolitan networks, and signed up to a sex website on their office computer. The extent to which the police have used confidential internal data for criminal ends, and abused individuals’ private data for their personal benefit, is regarded astonishing by the observers.

Media reports confirm that over 300 breaches of the Data Protection Act occurred within the last 5 years. Of all those cases, 70% led to formal action being taken, including criminal prosecutions or disciplinary action. However, the number of cases that led to prosecutions is unknown. But it is known that the remaining 92 cases have resulted in such things as retirement or resignation, along with written notifications and management action. However, 2 of them resulted in nothing. About 20% of the total resulted in the sacking or retirement of an officer.

The cases that cause most concern are those where violent or sexual offenders used an officer to provide information to assist in criminality. One of the officers, for instance, provided data of a significant level to a prominent criminal having links to firearms. It seems that the Metropolitan Police took action against that defective chief inspector who committed “offenses contrary to the Prevention of Corruption Act’, as it was written in the report. The other case mentions a candidate for a police driving exam who was sent the answers by his colleague.