Warning for ‘drunk and disorderly’ police worker

ian.johnson01@reachplc.com A “DRUNK and disorderly” Northumbria police worker has been rapped by the force.

The staff member was given a fixed penalty notice for the offence which the force say was committed out of its patch.

However the worker, who wasn’t a frontline officer, was then brought before a misconduct meeting.

The behind-closed-doors meeting, held on May 21, found the staff member had engaged in “discreditable conduct”.

Police bosses gave them a written warning, but allowed them to keep their job.

A week earlier, a Northumbria PC was handed a one-year written warning after a misconduct meeting found they had accessed Northumbria Police force systems “for a nonpolicing purpose”.

A Northumbria Police spokesman said there had been four breaches in total.

Details of the officers have not been made public after the force published reports of the meetings.

Detective Superintendent Sav Patsalos, head of professional standards at Northumbria Police, said: “We expect all of our officers and staff to maintain the highest professional standards.

“If anyone is found to have fallen below these standards we will take appropriate action.”

Misconduct meetings are held in private following investigations by the force’s professional standards department.

They deal with allegations of lower level misconduct breaches.

Police misconduct hearings are now held in public, unless there are exceptional circumstances, following a change in law from then Home Secretary Theresa May.

The move was aimed at increasing transparency in the police.