Police Anti-Corruption and Abuse Report Service – Briefing

Police forces and Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) have commissioned the independent charity Crimestoppers to run a service for the public to report allegations of corruption and serious abuse by police officers, staff and volunteers.

The Police Anti-Corruption and Abuse Reporting Service covers information relating to officers, staff and volunteers who:

• Provide information or influence in return for money or favours.
• Use their policing position for personal advantage - whether financial or otherwise.
• Cross professional boundaries or abuse their position for sexual purposes.
• Abuse or control their partner, or those they have a relationship with.
• Engage in racist, homophobic, misogynistic or disablist conduct, on or off duty, in person or online.

Why has it been set up?
All police chiefs and PCCs made a commitment to reform police standards and culture in light of some of the abhorrent stories of police perpetrated abuse and corruption that we’ve heard over the past few years.

As part of that commitment, work began on introducing a national reporting service for the public to report corruption and serious abuse by individuals within policing in 2022.

Whilst we are working proactively to root out corruption and abuse within our service, we are also aware that there are still many victims of police perpetrated abuse who do not have the confidence in policing to report what has happened to them. We hope that by providing an alternative reporting route, more victims will feel enabled to come forward so that we can take action.

How does it work?
Crimestoppers will take reports from the public about individuals currently employed by any police force in the UK. The information will be passed to the relevant force’s specialist unit, such as Professional Standards or Anti-Corruption. It may then be passed to specialist detectives to begin an investigation, take steps to safeguard someone at risk or in danger, or record the information to inform future investigations.

The service sits alongside each force’s existing complaints procedure, and has been set up solely to take reports of serious corruption and abuse committed by serving police officers and staff.

When people contact the service, they can choose to remain 100% anonymous, or can opt to leave their details if they are willing for the force investigation team to contact them directly.

All reports will be taken seriously and thoroughly assessed, and where misconduct is proven, appropriate action will be taken.