Police Officers Abusing Their Power - Report

By Martin Brunt, Crime Correspondent

Police officers are abusing their power to get sexual favours and drugs, a report reveals, and it's feared that new force budget cuts could breed staff anger and more corruption.

The abuse of power was first highlighted two years ago, but is happening just as much now, according to Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary.

Mike Cunningham said: "It remains a concern today and we want to see a more proactive approach by police leaders to identify officers likely to conduct themselves in this way and put preventative measures in their way.

"They have to be more vigilant. It is not decreasing and remains a significant problem.

"Like all corruption, the true scale of it is not known until you turn over the stone."

The HMIC is also concerned that more than half of corruption and misconduct investigations result in no further action.

The report's figures showed that of 4,611 investigations, 2,891 did not lead to a prosecution or internal disciplinary action.

The figures for complaints of racial discrimination were even starker.

Of 1,043 allegations, 816 resulted in no action.

Mr Cunningham said: "We are concerned about these figures.

"It could be the complaints were unfounded or malicious, but they may be inadequately investigated and the service needs to understand why so many result in no further action."

He warned, too, that dissatisfaction with more spending cuts could drive officers into corruption.

He said: "At times of uncertainty there could be a general counter-organisation attitude, people belligerent towards the service and it could encourage them, if they are prone to corruption, to let down their colleagues.

"It is incumbent on chief constables to be even more vigilant over the conduct of their staff."

The HMIC report says the 43 police forces of England and Wales have done much to tackle corruption, but need to be more proactive in rooting it out.

They need to improve internal reporting systems, which half of all officers do not believe are confidential enough and so do not use them.

Jacqui Cheer of the Association of Chief Police Officers said corruption is "neither endemic nor widespread".

"However, the actions of a few corrupt officers can corrode the reputation of the vast majority who work hard every day to protect the public," she said.

"We will continue to improve our approach so that those who are not fit to be in the police are held to account and removed."

College of Policing CEO Alex Marshall said: "Trust in police remains high and it is encouraging to see the HMIC report acknowledges all forces have begun introducing the Code of Ethics, which was created by the College to guide ethical decision making.

"Work has already begun to provide guidance to forces for best practice in managing whistleblowing.

"This should increase confidence among officers that their force will know how to deal with any disclosure appropriately."

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