Cumbria Constabulary responds to sexual assault claims
Dozens of allegations of sexual assault have been made against police officers in Cumbria over the last five years.
A Freedom of Information request has revealed that 29 claims were made between 2016 and 2020.
Of these, 27 involve a male officer and two involved a female officer.
Cumbria Constabulary has said it takes all such claims "incredibly seriously".
Detective Superintendent Dave Stalker, head of people at Cumbria Constabulary said:
DSU Stalker added: “Officers and staff receive regular guidance on what is expected of them and all, as members of the constabulary, sign up to a clear code of ethics. We know how important this issue is. All reports of misconduct made to the constabulary are taken incredibly seriously."
He also said that the force monitored the complaints it received and encouraged anyone with a concern to make contact online or by calling 101. This would lead to an investigation which could - in a worst-case scenario - lead to a dismissal.
DSU Stalker pointed out that the report showed allegations were made against "less than 0.5 per cent of individual officers at the constabulary" and that the figures include "potentially non-recent complaints".
He added:
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The FoI request - submitted by the PA news agency - asked forces in England, Wales and Scotland how many complaints of sexual assault were made against serving police officers in each of these years.
Complaints could relate to historic allegations and most, where the gender was recorded, were against male officers, the data shows.
The responses did not indicate whether any of the officers were on duty at the time of the alleged incidents.
Of the total number of cases logged by all responding forces over the five years, at least 34 resulted in dismissals.
In at least seven cases, an officer was listed as having either resigned or been dismissed, and at least six officers would have been dismissed if they had not resigned first.
At least one officer resigned before a misconduct hearing, and in one case the officer was listed as deceased.
Not all forces provided a detailed breakdown of sanctions taken and one of the forces which replied to the FoI also included a small number of police staff in its response.
There are 43 police forces covering England and Wales, as well as Police Scotland and the British Transport Police.
Separate publicly available data reveals Surrey Police recorded 36 allegations of sexual misconduct against its officers over the same period, while the Met Police logged more than 500 claims of sexual offences against both officers and members of staff.
It comes after an independent inquiry was announced by the Home Secretary Priti Patel to look into the "systematic failures" that allowed Sarah Everard's killer, Wayne Couzens, to be employed as a police officer.
Baroness Casey of Blackstock will lead a separate review of culture and standards at the Metropolitan Police in the wake of Ms Everard's murder.
Armed officer Couzens used his police issue handcuffs and warrant card to stage a fake arrest so he could kidnap 33-year-old Ms Everard before he raped and murdered her.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct, which oversees the police complaints system, said it was down to forces to "stamp out" any abuse of police powers.
A spokesperson said: "The abuse of police powers for purposes of sexual exploitation, or violence, has a devastating impact on victims, and a serious impact on the public's confidence in individual officers and the service in general.
"It is critical there are effective systems in place to prevent, monitor and deal swiftly with any individual who exploits that trust.
On announcing an independent inquiry, the Home Secretary said the public needed answers to ensure an incident like the murder of Ms Everard never happened again.
A Home Office spokesperson said: "As the public would rightly expect, we take police integrity very seriously and have already taken steps to overhaul the police complaints and discipline systems in order to increase transparency and accountability."