Inappropriate relationship with woman - Sussex Police, May 2020

A woman reported being harassed by a former partner in February 2020 and an officer took a statement from her regarding the alleged harassment. 

A sergeant, a personal friend of the woman, became the officer's supervisor in April 2020 and had added him to a WhatsApp group where the woman was also a member.

In May 2020, the woman messaged the group saying she had baked a cake for a police sergeant who had injured her hand. The woman then sent another officer a private message offering him a cake, which he collected the following day.

Two weeks later, the officer moved in with her as she was renting out a spare room.

Our investigation found the woman had told the sergeant that the other officer had moved in with her. Despite this, the sergeant deliberately made misleading notes in her notebook later that month by stating that the officer was “sofa surfing” with friends and omitted to state that he was staying with the woman.

The following month, the officer and the woman attended a barbecue - hosted by the sergeant – and acted ‘like a couple’.

When interviewed by the IOPC, the officer claimed that the sergeant told him she would “play clever” by giving the vetting department false accounts of the relationship and encouraged him to do the same.

In July 2020, the sergeant contacted the vetting department and said that the officer was “sofa-surfing” with friends. She failed to state she knew he was living with or in a relationship with the woman, who was a victim of domestic violence and whom he had met in the course of his duties.

Gross misconduct was proven against officers and at a hearing, both officers were dismissed without notice.

The hearing heard that the sergeant failed to challenge or report the officers' conduct despite knowing they were seeing each other. She was also aware the pair had met through his policing duties and that he had formed an inappropriate relationship with her when she was in a vulnerable position.

In a separate investigation, we also found that the sergeant had attended a police incident involving the woman’s daughter at a hospital in 2017 and, in doing so, the sergeant neglected her duties by not declaring her personal knowledge of the family and reporting a potential conflict of interest.

She also gave a false account of her role in this matter.

Following the hearing, the officer was dismissed for breaching the police professional standards of behaviour relating to discreditable conduct; duties and responsibilities; honesty and integrity; and authority, respect and courtesy.

The sergeant was dismissed after being found to have breached the police professional standards of behaviour relating to discreditable conduct, duties and responsibilities, challenging and reporting improper conduct, and honesty and integrity.

A third officer, a former officer, was cleared of allegations of breaching professional standards of behaviour including for discreditable conduct and challenging and reporting improper conduct.

We carefully considered whether there were any learning opportunities arising from the investigation. We make learning recommendations to improve policing and public confidence in the police complaints system and prevent a recurrence of similar incidents.

We did not identify any organisational learning.