Force welcomes historical data wash results and pledges ongoing vetting commitment
Dorset Police has pledged its ongoing commitment to ensure that all police officers, staff and volunteers undergo ongoing stringent and robust vetting procedures.
This follows the publication of the historical data wash where over 300,000 officers, staff and volunteers working across UK police forces have been checked against the Police National Database – this included 3,185 employees and volunteers in Dorset.
In the data returned to the Force it was found that there were no cases that needed criminal or disciplinary investigation, management intervention or re-vetting.
In January 2023, forces were asked to prepare HR data on officers, staff, special constables and volunteers so it could be processed through the national database. The results of the checks were then returned to forces by the Home Office so that each case could be assessed and if an area of concern was raised, it could be reviewed for further action by the Force’s Professional Standards Department.
Deputy Chief Constable Rachel Farrell said: “Ensuring we have individuals who are fit to serve our communities is of utmost importance in helping us to deliver a safer Dorset with the trust and confidence of our residents and visitors.
“The national historical data wash programme was a useful tool, designed to highlight issues we weren’t already aware of alongside ensuring our approaches to rooting out misconduct are effective.
“The data wash didn’t identify any additional areas of concern, which should go some way to reassuring our communities that we’re tackling misconduct effectively.
“Our Professional Standards Department works hard to identify information and intelligence and take appropriate and necessary action to remove individuals who should not work in policing.
“In addition, our recently launched ‘Call it Out’ initiative is giving officers and staff increased confidence of raising any concerns they may have about colleagues.
“Dorset Police continues to be committed to taking an open and transparent approach to tackling misconduct and we regularly proactively communicate outcomes of officer misconduct hearings to our communities to demonstrate we’re tackling the issue head on.
“The vast majority of our officers, staff and volunteers act with the highest levels of honesty and integrity and any issue of misconduct is always very disappointing.
“We will continue to work hard to ensure we deliver the highest standards of integrity that the public rightly expect of us and that we will continue to remove any individuals in our Force that do not uphold those standards.”
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