FOI Historic Misconduct Data (1285-2023/24)
Request
This is a Freedom of Information request to the professional standards department of the force.
Please can you tell me how many police officers have been investigated by the professional standards department for misconduct of any kind in each year over the last 10 years.
Please include:
• a description of the misconduct being investigated
• roughly when the misconduct occurred
• the outcome of the investigation
• the rank of the police officer
• how long each investigation took (the date the investigation started and the date it was concluded)
• the name of the case that the misconduct related to
Please can you also tell me what the professional standards department budget has been for each year over the past 10 years.
Response
Extent of Searches to Locate Information
Following receipt of your request searches were conducted within North Yorkshire Police to locate relevant information.
Decision
I am not obliged to provide you with a response to your request pursuant to Section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the Act). Please note that when one part of your request falls under Section 12, we are not obliged to review the rest of the questions and the whole request is therefore exempt.
Section 12(1) applies to your request as the cost of complying with your request is above the amount to which we are legally required to respond i.e. the cost of identifying and retrieving any relevant information exceeds the ‘appropriate level’ as stated in the Freedom of Information (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004.
Due to the nature of our recording systems the information requested, if held, is not in an easily retrievable format. Misconduct data from 2014 to 2020 is not held in a way that can be searched automatically. In order to retrieve the requested information, it would be necessary to manually review over 3000 files to extract the data required to fulfil your request, which would exceed the time limit allowed under the Act.
Pursuant to Section 17(5) of the Freedom of Information Act this letter acts as a Refusal Notice.
Pursuant to Section 16 of the Act I am required to offer you advice and assistance with regarding to refining your request to within the ‘appropriate limit’ (time/cost limit). However, in 2020 a standardised format of recording misconduct data was introduced. If you re-submit your request to include information from 2020 to date we may be able to assist. If you wish to discuss this please do not hesitate to contact me.
Please see the document on the link below which identifies the codes used for misconduct cases.
Guidance-on-capturing-data-police-complaints-Feb-2024.pdf (policeconduct.gov.uk)
Please note that systems used for recording information are not generic, nor are the procedures used locally in capturing the data. It should be noted therefore that this force’s response to your questions should not be used for comparison purposes with any other responses you may receive.