The number of officers sacked and barred from returning to work for Sussex Police each year has more than tripled since the Covid pandemic. New figures released by the College of Policing show nearly 50 officershave been dismissed and added to the college’s barred list since April 2020. A spokesman for the force said the number of staff on the barred list is “increasing in line with the national trend” and the vast number of officers are “a credit to the force”.
New figures show that from April 2023 to March 2024, 16 officers were dismissed and added to the barred list, meaning they are banned from future jobs in policing. In the previous year, 15 officers were dismissed while 12 were dismissed in 2021/2022. Just five officers were dismissed in 2020/21 which fell during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.
In total, 48 Sussex Police officers have been dismissed and added to the barred list since April 2020. Sussex Police had the seventh most officers dismissed in the last year among police forces in England – but the force has the 14th most officers in the country. In March, a Sussex Police officer was sacked after kissing his colleague against her will and taking her to his hotel room while she was heavily drunk.
PC Richard Hession was barred after he kissed a female colleague on the neck while he was a serving police officer in Brighton, a four-day disciplinary hearing was told. He was subject to a criminal investigation which was dropped due to insufficient evi.
