Gloucester police officer sacked and barred from policing for gross misconduct

A Gloucestershire Constabulary police officer who took advantage of his position to improperly snoop into information about an arrest has been sacked. Police Constable Thomas Baker accessed police data systems on multiple occasions without a reason to do so.

He then tried to cover up his wrongdoing, lying about how many times he had accessed the sensitive information, a misconduct hearing found. Baker has now been dismissed without notice and barred from policing for life.

A misconduct hearing, which was open to the public, took place in front of a panel chaired by Assistant Chief Constable Arman Mathieson at Gloucestershire Constabulary headquarters this week. It found that Baker breached standards of professional behaviour, namely confidentiality, discreditable conduct, order and instructions, and honesty and integrity.

READ MORE: Gloucester man admits murdering young woman found dying in the street

READ MORE: Person rushed to hospital after Gloucester shopping centre incident

Gloucestershire Police said that PC Baker, who was formerly based in Gloucester, accessed police data systems on six occasions to view records relating to a man who’d been arrested when he did not have a lawful policing purpose to do so.

He subsequently acknowledged accessing the records but lied about the number of times he had done so, the misconduct hearing found. The panel subsequently found PC Baker’s actions amounted to gross misconduct.

ACC Mathieson said: “Police officers have access to lots of sensitive information and should only ever access police data systems when they have a legitimate reason for doing so.

“PC Baker took advantage of his position as an officer and in doing so betrayed the public’s trust. To compound this, he then lied about his actions in an attempt to conceal his wrongdoing.

“The public rightly expect the highest standards of behaviour from all our officers and staff and PC Baker’s conduct fell well below of the standards expected of him. He is therefore unfit to serve as a police officer and has subsequently been dismissed without notice and his name has been placed on the Police Barred List.

“The public’s confidence in policing is damaged each and every time an officer exceeds or abuses the lawful use of their powers or otherwise falls short of the required standards. When this happens at Gloucestershire Constabulary, we don’t hesitate to take action and I hope this reassures our communities that only those fit to serve are allowed to do so.”

The force said that a copy of the full outcome of the hearing will be published on the misconduct section of our website in due course