Northumbria Police has disclosed that 64 officers were accused of sexual or domestic abuse in a four-year period, following a call for greater police transparency from councillors. 

Between April 2019 and March 2023, 64 Northumbria Police officers, including two former officers, were accused of sexual or domestic violence, says the force.

Of these, 54 were investigated, 17 of whom continued in their normal duties during the investigations. 

A total of 11 officers were subsequently dismissed following investigations and three were ultimately prosecuted. The force handed over these statistics at the request of North Tyneside Council’s  ‘Community Independent Group’ and they were told to councillors at Thursday’s full council.

The Group also asked why police had not handed over this data earlier as part of a Liberal Democrat mass freedom of information (FOI) request to every force in the UK last year. A subsequent article from The Observer reported in December 2023 that the data collected from responsive forces revealed that 1,100 officers across England and Wales were under investigation for sexual or domestic abuse. 

However, the article went on to say Northumbria Police was one of 28 out of 43 forces that had not responded to the Lib Dems’ request. Deputy Mayor of North Tyneside, Carl Johnson said, following conversations with Northumbria Police, the force had not received the FOI. 

Deputy Mayor Johnson said: “The police have said that they didn’t receive the FOI from the Liberal Democratic Party, that’s why they didn’t respond. They responded to us when we asked for the information, so I’m sure had they received the FOI they would have responded.” 

In response to the request for the data, Northumbria Police referred the Local Democracy Reporting Service to a statement made by Detective Superintendent Donna Rose, the force’s head of professional standards, in November last year. 

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The statement reads: “It is an honour and a privilege to be a police officer, and upon joining we take an oath to serve with fairness, integrity, diligence and impartiality. Sadly, as we have seen both nationally and locally, there are times when individuals fail to meet these qualities.

“In the more serious cases, this can lead to criminal action being taken against those same people who made a commitment to uphold the law. We absolutely recognise the impact such incidents can have on the communities we are here to protect.”

The statement continued: “As we have previously made clear, this includes being relentless in our pursuit to root out those individuals who don’t share our values – and who ultimately have no place within policing.”