BY JAMES SIMONS
UK police committed 2,300 breaches between 2011 and 2015, a report has has disclosed.
The report by watchdog Big brother, entitled ‘safe in police hands’?said that police had committed breaches that included a range of misconduct to do with their abuse of position in relation to details on national police computers.
These include inappropriate disclosure of information without authorization, obtaining information from police computers for none policing uses, sharing information with third parties, and accessing information for personal reasons.
According to the report, information was unlawfully shared over 800 times to third parties who had no right to accessing such information.
The findings obtained by a freedom of information act request, presents a damning verdict of irresponsible and reckless officers who abuse their powers in office without care or fear of detection. 2,300 breaches is far too many.
More bothersome about the report is the finding that a dismissal or resignation only occurred in 13 percent of the cases. Offending officers went unpunished most of the time, as their superiors shamefully held the best interests of the officers above the interest of justice. We may never know the true scale of the effect of those 2,300 breaches.
It is nothing new for officers to escape punishment for their offences, but it is shameful nevertheless. These are people employed to see to the enforcement of the law.
