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Police officers stay in jobs despite serious convictions

By John Hirst

Police officers stay in jobs despite serious convictions

Police officers convicted of serious violent offences are continuing to serve, it has emerged.

Dozens of officers at a single force are patrolling the streets despite convictions for gun crimes, actual bodily harm, theft and other offences.

Many of the crimes took place while the officers were in post, raising concerns about a fall in police standards.

Last night MPs questioned whether courts could trust evidence from officers with serious convictions, and condemned the "deeply unfair" policies that allowed the officers to keep their jobs .

Figures released by Hampshire Police showed that its 4,000 serving officers had accumulated 42 convictions, including affray, benefit fraud, drunk and disorderly conduct and possessing cannabis plants. If the figures are extrapolated, it would suggest that there are 1,580 convictions among the 144,000 police in England and Wales.

I blogged here about what I thought was a case of unfair dismissal. Based upon the story above, it would appear that those police officers unfairly retained their jobs.

Full post as published by prisonlawinsideout on November 15, 2008 (boomark / email).