FOI 1035-2024/25 Officer Offences

Request
Q1. What is the force’s policy on naming police officers charged with criminal offences?

Q2. If no local or national policy exists, what is the force’s official position on naming officers in such cases?

Q3. Additionally, please provide copies of all press releases issued in 2024 concerning police officers charged with criminal offences.

Q4. Finally, please provide the number of police officers and special constables charged or summoned to court between 1st January 2024 and 31st December 2024.

Extent and Result of Searches to Locate Information
To locate the information relevant to your request searches were conducted within North Yorkshire Police.

Decision
I have today decided to disclose the following information to you.

Q1. North Yorkshire Police follow the College of Policing’s Authorised Professional Practice Media relations guidance, specifically the Police under investigation, Publicising internal investigations and misconduct matters sections.

As such, this information is exempt from disclosure pursuant to Section 21 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the Act) as it is available to the applicant by other means. Please see the below exemption explanation.

Q2. Please see response to Q1.

Q3. Any police officer charged with a criminal offence is subject to a misconduct hearing, the outcomes of which are publicly available on North Yorkshire Police’s website using the following link:

Misconduct Hearing Outcomes 2016 - 2024 | North Yorkshire Police

As such, this information is exempt from disclosure pursuant to Section 21 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the Act) as it is available to the applicant by other means. Please see the below exemption explanation.

Q4. I am exempting this information pursuant to Section 30 of the Act. Please see the below explanation.

Exemption Explanation

Section 17 of the Act requires North Yorkshire Police, when refusing to provide such information (because the information is exempt) to provide you the applicant with a notice which: (a) states that fact, (b) specifies the exemption in question and (c) states (if that would not otherwise be apparent) why the exemption applies.

Section 21 – Information Reasonably Accessible by Other Means
Section 21 is an absolute class based exemption and I am not required to consider the harm or public interest when applying this exemption.

Section 30 - Investigations
Section 30 is a qualified, class-based exemption, which requires that I conduct a public interest test to balance the legitimate interests of the public in knowing the information against the interests of non-disclosure.

Public Interest Test - Section 30
Reasons for Disclosure
The public have an interest in understanding how the police investigate crime. There is legitimate public interest in knowing how public funds are spent.

Reasons against Disclosure
Releasing this information would undermine the approaches of the investigations and may affect the individuals rights to a fair trial. 

Balancing Test
After considering the reasons for and against disclosure, it is my opinion that the reasons for non-disclosure outweigh the reasons for disclosure.

Pursuant to Section 17(1) of the Act this letter acts as a Refusal Notice in response to your request.

Please note that systems used for recording information are not generic, nor are the procedures used locally in capturing the data.  It should be noted therefore that this force’s response to your questions should not be used for comparison purposes with any other responses you may receive.