More than one-third of the allegations against suspended officers involved gender-based violence including sexual assault, intimate partner violence and sexual harassment.
The majority (87 per cent) of suspensions were accompanied by a criminal charge.
Nearly half of all officers suspended and convicted of a crime returned to work. Just under one in 10 were fired.
The vast majority were constables, but all ranks were represented including chiefs and deputy chiefs.
Eleven officers were suspended multiple times during the past decade.
This is all incredibly embarrassing and infuriating.
And your list of allegations points out another problem.
I can understand insulating police officers to some extent from criminal charges incurred in the line of duty while the court process is taking place, because the nature of their job is going to mean that they get hit with more than the average number of charges for things like assault that end up not panning out . . . but there’s no way intimate partner violence should be occurring in the line of duty for police, and they should not be protected from it. (Given extra mental health supports in a bid to avoid it, sure, but once it happens they need to be treated like everyone else.)
These are the things that really bother me. Not that they’re not left without income while under being tried/reviewed. If it’s easier to fire the bad apples, the money spent on them doing nothing would be less as well.
This is all incredibly embarrassing and infuriating.
And your list of allegations points out another problem.
I can understand insulating police officers to some extent from criminal charges incurred in the line of duty while the court process is taking place, because the nature of their job is going to mean that they get hit with more than the average number of charges for things like assault that end up not panning out . . . but there’s no way intimate partner violence should be occurring in the line of duty for police, and they should not be protected from it. (Given extra mental health supports in a bid to avoid it, sure, but once it happens they need to be treated like everyone else.)
These are the things that really bother me. Not that they’re not left without income while under being tried/reviewed. If it’s easier to fire the bad apples, the money spent on them doing nothing would be less as well.