Former Dorset police officer found guilty of gross misconduct after repeatedly accessing police national computer illegally

A FORMER Dorset police officer has been found guilty of gross misconduct after he repeatedly accessed the police national computer illegally and contacted someone he found on it.

The PC, who has not been named, looked up cases he was not involved with between January 2023 and June 2024.

After accessing some of the records, he then contacted someone who had been mentioned in one of the cases.

When the breaches of section 170 of the Data Protection Act 2018 came to light, the officer was arrested in August 2024 and interviewed.

He admitted “unlawfully and improperly” accessing the personal data of members of the public “without having a policing reason and purely for their own knowledge.”

The officer also admitted to further breaches of the act that the arresting officers had previously been unaware of.

He subsequently pleaded guilty at a misconduct hearing held at Dorset Police Authority HQ in Winfrith to gross misconduct, and received a conditional caution. The officer then retired from the force and had been placed on the police barred list.

At the hearing it was noted the officer had admitted to the offences at the “first opportunity and had shown remorse and regret”.

A police statement said there was “no evidence that any police investigation was compromised as a result” of the officer’s actions, or that he had disclosed the information he viewed to anyone else.

It added that if the officer had not retired from the force he would have been dismissed from it “without notice”.

Deputy Chief Constable Rachel Farrell, of Dorset Police, said: “The actions of the former officer constituted repeated unlawful behaviour – involving a number of breaches – and as an experienced officer they knew this. They directly contravened the training they had received in this respect.

“Police officers are responsible for upholding the law and when they themselves break it, this seriously harms public trust and confidence.”