Search of police cadets’ records – Essex Police, December 2019
Our investigation found that in May 2019, a Police Community Support Officer (PCSO) accessed a police computer system to view the person record of two police cadets. Both were under 18 years at the time. He also viewed police investigation files relating to one of the children, despite having no legitimate policing purpose for carrying out any of these searches.
Our investigation began following a mandatory conduct referral from Essex Police in December 2019, which related to allegations of inappropriate behaviour by the PCSO to a volunteer cadet and searching cadets’ person records on a police system.
At the conclusion of our investigation in February 2021 we sent a file of evidence to the Crown Prosecution Service who authorised charges under the Data Protection Act 2018 and Computer Misuse Act 1990. The second charge relating to computer misuse will lie on file.
In January 2024, he pleaded guilty at Basildon Crown Court for unlawfully obtaining data, under the Data Protection Act 2018. He was handed a £1000 fine and ordered to repay court costs.
At the end of our investigation, we also decided that the PCSO should face a gross misconduct hearing for potential breaches of the police standards of professional behaviour.
This hearing was arranged by the force in February 2022 and he was found guilty of gross misconduct for misusing police systems to look up cadet members without a policing purpose and for his inappropriate behaviour towards one of the cadets, which included a large number of messages sent to the child from his personal mobile number.
A disciplinary panel found he would have been dismissed without notice had he not already resigned. He has also been placed on the police barred list.
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.
In this case the potential areas for improvement we identified were not taken forward following consultation with Essex Police.