Officer 'abused position' by accessing case files

PC Joseph Barker attended a gross misconduct hearing at Sherwood Lodge, Nottinghamshire Police's headquarters, on Thursday

A Nottinghamshire Police officer has admitted breaching policing standards after he repeatedly accessed an investigation he was a victim of.

PC Joseph Barker used the police system to look up details about an assault on him in 2022 while he was off-duty.

A misconduct hearing heard a person was charged in relation to the assault but the prosecution case collapsed "partly as a result" of the actions of PC Barker, who resigned from his role.

Chief Constable Kate Meynell said: "Accessing confidential information without a valid policing reason is an abuse of an officer's position."

Investigation launched

Despite receiving regular updates from the officer in the case, the hearing heard PC Barker kept using the crime recording system to look through materials that he should not have.

This included accessing information about the suspect's arrest record, the incident log, his own witness statement, and CCTV footage.

In total, the officer searched for information relating to the incident on 28 separate occasions between March 2022 and February 2023, despite "having no policing reason to do so".

PC Barker also used his personal phone to record a video showing parts of the CCTV footage.

Another officer became aware of the video in November 2023, at which point PC Barker admitted how it had got there, and a Professional Standards Directorate (PSD) investigation was launched.

PC Barker later resigned from his role before the misconduct hearing and admitted to breaching three standards of professional behaviour – confidentiality, discreditable conduct, and orders and instructions – but denied it amounted to gross misconduct.

Chief Constable Kate Meynell said the officer had committed gross misconduct and would have been dismissed if still working for the force

The officer said he had been "naïve" in doing what he did and that he was "truly sorry", but claimed he had made a "genuine and honest mistake".

But the chief constable said it did amount to gross misconduct and PC Barker would have been sacked if still working in the force.

She said: "The public are right to expect that personal data held on police computer systems is treated in the strictest confidence and only accessed for genuine policing reasons.

"Aside from being a victim, PC Barker had no involvement in this investigation, and so had no right to log into the force's crime recording and digital evidence management systems and search for what he did.

"We take protection of our data extremely seriously as a force, and will not accept general curiosity as a reason for breaching these strict policing standards."