Nearly 600 police officers are sacked in one year, figures reveal

Record numbers of police officers are being kicked out of forces with dismissals rocketing by 50 per cent in the last year, shock new figures show.

Almost 600 officers were sacked and banned from returning to any police job in the year to March 2024.

That is a 50 per cent rise on the 394 officers booted out of forces in the previous 12 months, according to new figures from the College of Policing.

The number of officers being barred from policing has risen eight-fold from 70 cases between December 2017- March 2018 to 593 this year.

One in eight of those 593 officers were removed due to sexual offences or misconduct.

The dramatic increase comes after police leaders vowed to root out bad behaviour following a series of shocking cases including the kidnap, rape and murder of Sarah Everard by Met officer Wayne Couzens in 2021.

In recent years officers have been punished for sharing appalling messages about rape, domestic violence and killing black children.

In one disturbing case, officers photographed the bodies of two murdered sisters at a police cordon.

The latest figures from the Police Barred List show that 593 officers were sacked from a workforce of more than 147,000 across 43 police forces in England and Wales.

But critics have questioned whether enough officers are being punished.

In 2022 Baroness Casey warned hundreds of Met Police officers had been getting away with breaking the law and misconduct.

At the time, the force was investigating more than 600 domestic and sexual abuse allegations against its officers.

But only 88 people were sacked by the force between 2022-2023.

The latest figures show that of the 593 officers dismissed nationally, dishonesty was the most common reason recorded accounting for 125 cases, followed by 74 sexual offences or misconduct, 71 instances of discriminatory behaviour and 66 cases of ‘unlawful access to or disclosure of information’.

The figures show 33 officers were removed for abusing their position for a sexual purpose, 18 were sacked for being part of a discriminatory WhatsApp group and another 18 officers were removed for possessing indecent images of children.

Most of those (519) who lost their jobs were constables, but there were also 48 sergeants, 16 inspectors, five chief inspectors, two superintendents, one chief superintendent and two chief officers.

A breakdown shows the majority of offending officers were male (491), compared to 97 female officers dismissed.

The figures also reveal that most of the culprits were white (530), with only 12.7 per cent of those sacked being from a black or other ethnic minority background.

Scotland Yard got rid of the highest number of officers dismissing 123 in the 12 months, followed by Greater Manchester Police with 36, West Yorkshire removed 30 and West Midlands kicked out 29.

A total of 233 police staff and 30 specials were also added to the Police Barred List between April 1 2023 and March 31 2024.

The most common reason for the sacking of police staff was dishonesty, but there were also 26 cases of sexual offences or misconduct.

Assistant Chief Constable Tom Harding, Director of Operational Standards at the College of Policing, said: ‘It is of course, hugely disappointing to see the conduct of a number of officers falling far below the standard that we set for policing and which the public rightly expects.

‘However, these figures show that we have effective, robust procedures in place to identify and deal with these officers swiftly, and to prevent them from holding future roles in within the police.

‘These figures show that there is nowhere to hide for people who fail to meet the high standards set across our police forces.

‘Their behaviour tarnishes policing and erodes public trust.

‘The service will continue working to ensure we attract the right people into policing, ensuring that those who fail to meet these high standards have no future in policing.’