Figures highlight data breaches by police

New figures released to the privacy lobby group Big Brother Watch show that 904 police employees have been subjected to internal disciplinary procedures for breaching the Data Protection Act (DPA) over the past three years. The campaign group obtained the figures through a series of freedom of information requests to all of the police forces in England and Wales. It said that in Merseyside alone, 207 officers and staff were subject to internal disciplinary action and one received a criminal conviction. Other notable cases included a member of police staff in Dorset, who resigned after disclosing information about the supply of class A drugs to a third party, and a police sergeant in Nottinghamshire who was handed a 12 month jail sentence after being convicted of accessing police systems for non-policing purposes. Similarly, a police community support officer in Norfolk received a caution and was dismissed from their post after being found guilty of accessing details of a call to the police and passing them to a family member. The areas with the highest number of instances of staff having their employment terminated were: Kent, which logged 10; Merseyside and West Midlands with seven each; Northumbria with six; and Derbyshire and Humberside with five each. Commenting on the findings, Daniel Hamilton, director of Big Brother Watch, said: "Our investigation shows that not only have police employees been found to have run background records checks on friends and possible partners, but some have been convicted for passing sensitive information to criminal gangs and drug dealers. This is at best hugely intrusive and, at worse, downright dangerous." The group sent FoI requests to every police force in England and received responses from all forces apart from seven, which either refused to provide the information or failed to respond. A spokesman for the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo), said: "All officers are subject to the standards of professional behaviour set out in the Police Conduct Regulations. These regulations are very clear and state that police officers must be honest, act with integrity and do not compromise or abuse their position. Officers hold a position of trust, with privileged access to data and systems, and they have a positive duty to demonstrate that trust to the communities we serve. "When an officer's conduct, on duty or off duty, falls below the standards, there will be an investigation into what has occurred and if the allegation is proven then appropriate action will be taken." Correction: This story was corrected on 11 July to make clear that one Merseyside police employee received a criminal conviction and 207 were disciplined. This article is published by Guardian Professional. For weekly updates of news, debate and best practice on public sector IT, join the Government Computing Network here.