Police officer’s actions and contact with vulnerable members of the public they met while on duty - Cheshire Constabulary, October 2018

On 1 October 2018 Cheshire Constabulary made a referral to us regarding the conduct of an officer and their contact with a vulnerable person. The force then referred another matter regarding the same officer on 17 June 2019.

The evidence obtained by our investigation indicated that the former Cheshire Constabulary police officer contacted, via social media, three members of the public whom they had met during the course of their policing duties.

Our investigation found that the officer initially came into contact with these people as part of legitimate policing purposes; the officer then proceeded to contact and pursue a personal relationship with each of them.

Our investigators obtained and reviewed information provided by the force, reviewed a Facebook post and the subsequent comments made by members of the public relating to this officer. We also obtained statements from several witnesses, including some of the vulnerable individuals he had been in contact with. The police officer involved resigned from the force before we started our investigation.

We served the former officer with gross misconduct notices but the officer declined three separate invitations to be interviewed by our investigators. The officer provided a short written response, in which they stated that they accepted their conduct fell below the standard and wished to apologise.

We carefully evaluated the strengths and weaknesses of the evidence, the officer’s own account, the standards of professional behaviour, the applicable legislation, policies, procedures, and the officer’s training.

We had detailed discussion with the force, and also considered the more substantial evidential weaknesses relating to witness vulnerability and availability to present evidence at a gross misconduct hearing, should there be one.

Our final determination was that there was insufficient evidence upon which a panel could find gross misconduct for the former officer for any of the allegations against them. (As the officer had resigned from the force, the only finding we were able to make was one of a case to answer for gross misconduct or no case to answer for gross misconduct). No further action was taken. We concluded our investigation in November 2019