Racial misconduct
Freedom of Information (FOI) Act request ref: 01/FIN/24/2345
Version Date: 19/09/2024
The Professional Standards Department have provided the following information.
We have searched for all complaint and conduct cases recorded between the 01/08/2019 and the 27/08/2024 for a Staff Type of “Police Officer”. I then reviewed all cases with a Category of “Race”, a National Factor of “Hate Crime”, or any case with a summary keyword of “race”, “racial”, “racist” or “racism”.
We have also searched on Dorset NICHE for any individual whose employment is recorded as “Police Officer” and who is shown as arrested/suspected/voluntarily attended for a racially flagged hate crime for the same period. No Dorset Police Officers were linked to a criminal hate crime investigation.
Since 01 August 2019, what is the total number of police officers within your force, at any rank, who have been investigated for racial hate offences?
Total number of police officers who have been investigated for racial hate offences: 68 officers (within 51 cases).
In addition to this, 36 cases were recorded where the complainant did not report the identity of the officer, and it was not possible to identify the officer through the investigation.
Please categorise these investigations into the different types of racism that were alleged (e.g. Islamophobia, antisemitism, anti-Black racism, however it is that your force categorises racism offences)
We do not record cases the way the request is referring to (e.g. Islamophobia, antisemitism, anti-Black racism etc) so it would come down to what is recorded in the summary field – as that is what comes back in the queries that we run.
For this request, the majority of the detail in this field is as vague as “displaying a poster that is racially offensive”, “making a racist joke”, “officers were racist and rude”, “slow and inefficient response to racial incident”, “thinks the stop check was racist” – and other similar non-specific details.
Since 01 August 2019, what is the total number of police officers within your force, at any rank, who were:
a) fired/struck off and;
4 Officers
b) suspended, as a result of an investigation into a racial hate offence?
6 Officers
Clarification: The following request refers both to criminal investigations for racial hate, and conduct/behavioural investigations regarding racial discrimination. Please include them both in your figures.