Thames Valley Police receives 56 sexual misconduct complaints in one year

A Freedom of Information request has uncovered that Thames Valley Police received 56 sexual misconduct complaints over a 12-month period.

New data released by LegalExpert.co.uk shows that 43 of those complaints came from staff working for the police force.

Information disclosed to the firm shows that sexual assault was the most common allegation made by staff, making up 40 per cent of all staff complaints regarding sexual misconduct. Sexual harassment was the second most common allegation, accounting for 30 per cent of complaints.

Thames Valley Police believes the figure shows that the force is undergoing a change of culture where people are more confidently calling out poor behaviour.

The force also notes that extra resources are being put into its professional standards department to root out misconduct.

Data released by the injury firm covered the 12 months between October 2022 and October 2023, and can be accessed in full online here.

Two of the allegations made involved incidents of rape and a further two incidents of alleged abuse of power were logged by the police force.

During this 12-month period six officers were dismissed following sexual misconduct hearings, but these investigations could relate to incidents reported before October 2022.

A Thames Valley Police spokesperson said: “We take a zero tolerance approach to sexual misconduct within our workforce.

“We continue to work tirelessly to root out those in policing who abuse their position. We have put extra detective resources into our Professional Standards department, the team investigates complaints about our workforce, and introduced training to encourage our people to report issues and challenge poor behaviour.

“We’re making changes to support both those who report people within our force who fall short of our standards, and those who are victims of it. We now have dedicated staff support groups plus an independent advisor to support domestic abuse victims.

“The number of complaints is reflective of a positive shift in our internal culture, where people are now far more willing to speak out and we are willing to listen and take action where evidence exists.

“We have numerous training courses for our new and existing officers and staff to stop sexual misconduct. These include individual programmes about abusing a position for a sexual purpose, and sexual harassment, as well as training and specific guidance for supervisors to help us hold each other to account for our behaviour and actions and to challenge on occasions when these fall below the standards expected.

“All new officers, newly promoted supervisors and staff receive training from our Professional Standards department, while all new joiners receive training on the Code of Ethics.

“We want our communities and our people to know they can report concerns to us and we will take action.”

Last year a former police officer from Aylesbury was jailed for sexuall assaulting a 13-year-old girl. An independent investigation later found that the police force missed five opportunities to more closely scrutinise whether ex-PC Luke Horner was police material.