Ex-officer barred after accessing personal data

A police officer has been barred from serving again after covertly recording confidential information.

Joshua Ellis, who has since resigned from Leicestershire Police, was found to have deliberately and secretly made six audio recordings on his personal phone, as well as taking pictures on the same device during a drugs raid, a misconduct hearing found.

The recordings, made between April and October 2020, captured the personal details of his colleagues and members of the public, including names and addresses, and details concerning criminal offences.

A panel heard his colleagues said the former officer had "breached their trust by recording them in secret".

Mr Ellis admitted to secretly making four recordings and taking photos without telling colleagues.

He denied another three instances were done knowingly, with two of those ruled intentional by hearing chairman Steven Cooper, and the third accidental.

Mr Cooper accepted Mr Ellis required reasonable adjustments, but said this did not make the use of his personal phone "the correct course of action".

He added the former officer had chosen "not to use those devices that were provided and recommended to him" and instead used one that was "insecure and had it been lost, would have contained data that was extremely sensitive".

His actions were "clearly in breach of data protection rules" and he should have known this as he had only completed training on this a little more than two months before, the panel chairman added.

Mr Cooper ruled that Mr Ellis's behaviour, while not intended to cause harm to his colleagues or the police, was "inappropriate and inexplicable".

He added that Mr Ellis should have "foreseen the risk of harm by storing personal and operational data on his personal phone".

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