A former Thames Valley Police officer was found guilty of gross misconduct for accessing her partner’s criminal records.
The panel said she would have been fired if she was still working there then. The officer checked police records inappropriately. She looked up her partner’s information twice.
She first accessed records for police work. Later, she accessed them on two other dates: December 2, 2019, and May 21, 2020. The misconduct report linked this to a drug case. The panel noted she didn’t declare her relationship with Male A, which started August 2019.
She also knew about his drug involvement. She did not follow police policy about this. The officer didn’t give an honest account during questioning during the investigation of her actions. She accessed those records during their relationship.
The hearing found she hid her relationship on purpose. She also failed to disclose what she knew regarding Male A’s drug use. She had chances to do so. Before the hearing, she claimed concerns about the system, thinking it wrongly linked her partner to crime. The panel found this statement dishonest.
The former officer chose not to attend the meeting, knowing it was taking place on January 22. They were told she showed some regret and found the log initially for lawful reasons.
The panel looked at all the facts carefully. They considered the breaches of standards of conduct and assessed if this was misconduct or gross misconduct.
The panel remembered all circumstances. They considered breaches of the standards they found. The panel decided the breaches were very serious, justifying dismissal, if possible. Her conduct was therefore gross misconduct.
While they can’t actually fire her now, they did impose disciplinary action because of everything that happened here.