The police watchdog has revealed how more than 8,500 allegations about corruption have been recorded by forces in England and Wales in three years – but only 13 police officers have been prosecuted and found guilty.
Calling for additional powers and resources to tackle police corruption linked to the private sector, the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) warned that although corruption in the police is not deemed to be "widespread", it has a "corrosive" impact on public trust.
Detailing hundreds of cases of alleged corruption investigated or supervised by the watchdog, including some of "serious corruption, sometimes at a senior level", the IPCC called on ministers to consider giving the body more teeth.
It said the Home Office should consider whether the watchdog "can be resourced to carry out more investigations and exercise greater oversight in this area". The report shows allegations of corruption have steadily increased in recent years.
The report comes in a dramatic week in which parliament has heard allegations that officers within the Metropolitan police's anti-corruption unit were paid bribes. Within 24 hours of the allegations being raised before MPs, the Met – which had been investigating the case since October – made a series of arrests.
The Guardian revealed on Tuesday that the force was investigating allegations that a firm of private investigators, RISC Management, composed of former Met police officers, may have paid bribes to serving police officers in the force's anti-corruption unit.
Details of the case, which involves allegations of payments amounting to £20,000, were raised in evidence to the home affairs select committee. The following day, the offices of RISC Management were raided, and a serving Scotland Yard detective and three former Met police officers were arrested. One of the arrested former Met detectives was Keith Hunter, the chief executive of RISC Management.
The IPCC report makes specific reference to concerns about potentially corrupt relationships between police officers and the private sector. The watchdog's inquiry was launched in the wake of the phone-hacking scandal and related allegations that police officers received illicit payments from journalists.
The IPCC noted that it investigated only a small fraction of the corruption allegations, owing to its limited remit and resources, leaving individual forces to investigate their own officers in the vast majority of cases.
"The public is understandably doubtful about the extent to which, in this particular instance, the police can investigate themselves," said the IPCC's new chair, Dame Anne Owers. In a sign she would be seeking greater power and resources for the IPCC for tackling corruption, she said she would raise these concerns with ministers directly.
She added: "This report illustrates the kind of behaviour that undermines public confidence in the police such as abuse of authority, perverting the course of justice and accepting generous hospitality."
The report, which also called for more effective national system for handling allegations against very senior officers, collated data for all forces in England and Wales between 2008 and 2011. During that three year period, 8,542 allegations of corruption were recorded by police forces. Of those, only 837 were referred to the IPCC. The watchdog only had the resources or powers to independently investigate 21 of the most serious cases.
However, only a small proportion of the 8,500-plus allegations about corruption resulted in police officers being prosecuted. In total, 18 officers were charged and prosecuted following independent or "managed" IPCC investigations; 13 were found guilty.
The report said these allegations included rape and sexual assault, the fraudulent use of corporate credit cards, perverting the course of justice, the provision of false statements, and the misuse of police databases. Eleven of those found guilty were constables, one was a sergeant and the other a commander.
In the majority of the cases, questions over officer's conduct were not supplied by colleagues, but came to light after allegations from the public.
A larger number of cases were dealt with internally, with 87 police officers facing misconduct hearings within their forces – in 87% of those cases, the allegations of corruption were upheld. However, the most common punishment was a "written warning". The next most likely sanction was involved placing the officers under supervision or providing them with more training.
Only 14 officers – 18% of the total found guilty at misconduct hearings – were dismissed from the police or required to resign.
The cases revealed in the report found that the most senior officer to be found guilty of corruption-related misconduct was a chief constable, the highest-ranking officer in the force. His deputy was found guilty of "discreditable conduct".
Most cases in the report – 33% of reported allegations – involve alleged cases of perverting the course of justice. The next most common form of corruption allegation is theft and fraud.
Another case involved a retired 63-year-old detective chief superintendent and a retired 55-year-old detective constable who received prison sentences after admitting charges of misconduct in a public office and conspiracy to commit fraud.
After retiring from South Wales police, the former detective chief superintendent began working as a private investigator – his co-defendant, the detective constable, rejoined the force in a civilian role, as an administrator.
The two men then struck up a corrupt arrangement whereby, in exchange for payment, the civilian administrator would conduct illicit checks on police databases and disclose information to the investigator to assist him in his work.
The IPCC said: "The investigation also revealed that the administrator had links with a known criminal and he was found guilty of money-laundering after the police seized £200,000 from his property."
Owers added: "There are strong links between public trust and perceptions of police corruption. A serious focus on tackling police corruption is important, not just because it unearths unethical police behaviour, but because of the role it plays in wider public trust, views of police legitimacy and, on a practical level, cooperation and compliance with the police."
Deputy chief constable Bernard Lawson, who chairs the counter-corruption advisory group for the Association of Chief Police Officers, said: "This report again recognises that corruption is neither endemic nor widespread in the police service. However, the actions of a few corrupt officers can corrode the great work of so many working hard daily to protect the public."