Sexual misconduct complaints made against Thames Valley, Beds and Herts officers
New figures show hundreds of complaints have been made against officers in the UK
Last updated 12th Oct 2021
New figures show the number of sexual misconduct complaints that have been made against officers at Thames Valley Police, Hertfordshire Constabulary and Bedfordshire Police between 2016 and 2020.
They show that over four years there were 91 claims, against 99 police officers and staff at Thames Valley Police.
They were made against 85 males, 6 females, and 8 unknown.
For Bedfordshire Police, there were 3 claims against male officers.
Meanwhile, there were 27 claims against officers at Hertfordshire Constabulary.
But sex breakdown was only provided for the 26 officers involved in 24 closed cases.
Complaints were made against 21 males, 1 female, and 4 unknown.
The numbers have been put together by RADAR under the Freedom of Information Act, with at least 750 accusations made in total at 31 police forces.
The FoI asked forces in England, Wales and Scotland how many complaints of sexual assault were made against serving police officers in each of these years.
Complaints could relate to historic allegations and most, where the gender was recorded, were against male officers, the data shows.
The responses did not indicate whether any of the officers were on duty at the time of the alleged incidents.
Of the total number of cases logged by forces over the five years, at least 34 resulted in dismissals.
In at least seven cases, an officer was listed as having either resigned or been dismissed, and at least six officers would have been dismissed if they had not resigned first.
At least one officer resigned before a misconduct hearing, and in one case the officer was listed as deceased.
It comes after an independent inquiry was announced by the Home Secretary Priti Patel to look into the “systematic failures” that allowed Sarah Everard’s killer, Wayne Couzens, to be employed as a police officer.
Baroness Casey of Blackstock will lead a separate review of culture and standards at the Metropolitan Police in the wake of Ms Everard’s murder.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct, which oversees the police complaints system, said it was down to forces to “stamp out” any abuse of police powers.
A spokesperson said: “The abuse of police powers for purposes of sexual exploitation, or violence, has a devastating impact on victims, and a serious impact on the public’s confidence in individual officers and the service in general.
“It is critical there are effective systems in place to prevent, monitor and deal swiftly with any individual who exploits that trust.
“In the context of the police service, this behaviour is a form of corruption and should be dealt with as such.
“Each case reported represents a serious betrayal of the trust and confidence that individuals should have in the police. It is behaviour which can never be justified or condoned.”
Thames Valley Police and Hertfordshire Constabulary have responded to the figures.
A spokesperson for Thames Valley Police said:
"Thames Valley Police is determined to work tirelessly to protect the communities of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire.
"However, we understand the effect of recent events on trust in policing.
"Public confidence in our officers and staff is of the utmost importance to us and we take all complaints extremely seriously.
"We have robust processes in place to identify and investigate when standards have fallen below our expectations.
"Between 2016-17 and 2020-21, 91 complaints were made against 99 officers and staff for sexual assault, abuse of position for sexual purpose and other sexual conduct.
"Of these, disciplinary action was taken in 19 of these cases, 59 were investigated with no disciplinary action resulting and investigations into eight of the cases are still ongoing.
"Every reported offence is investigated by our Professional Standards Department.
"Disciplinary action will be taken where required and where appropriate officers or staff members will be dismissed from the force.
"In these cases, officers and staff will be placed on a national barred list preventing them from working in policing ever again.
"We also make referrals to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) when necessary.
"Communities in the Thames Valley should feel reassured that we hold all our officers and staff to the highest possible standards at all times."
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Hertfordshire Constabulary said:
"Hertfordshire Constabulary requires the highest levels of integrity from our officers and staff and when someone fails to meet this standard, we take the appropriate action.
"If claims are made against our officers, a thorough investigation will be carried out by an independent force irrespective of who the offender is.
"The Professional Standards Department (PSD) prioritise sexual offence allegations against police officers.
"PSD, working in conjunction with the IOPC, investigates officers where officer conduct has or is likely to have breached the standards of professional behaviour.
"In the wake of the murder of Sarah Everard, and the gross abuse of power exhibited by her killer, it is only right that the police service as a whole should be subjected to closer scrutiny.
"Our thoughts continue to be with Sarah’s family and friends who have had to endure a nightmare since she was taken from them.
"They have remained dignified and strong throughout, but we can only imagine the pain that they will continue to suffer.
"Sarah’s killer will never be free to pose a threat to any woman or girl ever again and his wicked actions have provoked feelings of great anger, sadness and shock among those working in policing.
"He betrayed every single police officer and staff member who have dedicated their working lives to preventing crime and keeping people safe.
"We recognise damage he will have caused to communities’ confidence in policing, and we are certain that the service nationally will learn from what has happened.
"He is however in no way reflective of policing generally and we as an organisation remain absolutely committed to protecting women and girls from violence and abuse, and keeping our streets safe for everyone."
We've also approached Bedfordshire Police for comment on the figures.