Nearly 30 Surrey Police officers and staff have been sacked over data protection breaches that included sharing residents’ personal details and leaving operational information at someone’s house.

Nineteen officers and 10 civilian staff were sacked between June 2011 and December 2015, in which period the force recorded 202 data breaches—the second-highest in the country behind West Midlands Police, on 488.

From December 2015: Surrey Police branded 'inadequate' in protecting vulnerable victims by independent watchdog

Nine staff members resigned over the breaches and 51 warnings were dished out, while managers were forced to act on 86 occasions.

Breaches also included accessing personal details without a policing purpose, a Freedom of Information request by campaign group Big Brother Watch has revealed.

According to disclosed documents, two police officers are currently being investigated over the sharing of deployment, equipment or training information. Two live investigations into civilian staff relate to the accessing of police systems without a policing purpose.

Surrey Comet:

When the Epsom Guardian contacted former Surrey Police and Crime Commissioner Kevin Hurley (pictured above) – under whose watch many of the breaches would have taken place – for comment, he told the reporter to “go and bother someone else”.

Surrey Comet:

From May: Conservative candidate David Munro defeats incumbent Kevin Hurley in Surrey Police and Crime Commissioner election

A Surrey Police spokeswoman attributed the high number of breaches to a system whereby officers would proactively trawl for “historic computer misuse cases”, and to the force’s policy of reporting cases individually as opposed to grouping them together.

Big Brother Watch questioned all the UK’s 43 police forces, asking for the number of times police officers and staff had been convicted, dismissed or disciplined internally for a data breach.

Some 95 per cent of forces responded, revealing at least 2,315 breaches by police staff nationwide. Over four-and-a-half years, this averaged out to 10 data breaches a week.

The group recommended introducing custodial sentences and criminal records for serious breaches, and making mandatory the reporting of breaches concerning a member of the public.

Renate Samson, chief executive of Big Brother Watch, said: “The job of the police is to protect us and in a digital society that also means protecting our data.

“We need to be able to trust those in authority with our personal information; unfortunately that trust is being regularly undermined.”

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A Surrey Police spokeswoman said: “Surrey Police takes data protection extremely seriously and the force has robust procedures in place to investigate any breaches, and deal with members of staff and officers who do not meet the high expectations placed upon them.

“Potential officers and staff undergo a series of vetting checks to assess their suitability. Data protection training is mandatory for all officers and staff, computer systems are regularly audited and vetting procedures are carried out on a continual basis.

“The computer misuse policy, and the high standards officers and staff are expected to meet, is also communicated on a regular basis. The vast majority of Surrey officers and staff behave in an honest and professional manner.”

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