In the UK, any police officer that is convicted of a criminal offence, no matter how serious, still must face misconduct proceedings before they are dismissed from the police force.
In all but the most minor of offences, any criminal conviction against a police officer should see them dismissed from the police and then, like any member of the public who wishes to join the police, they must re-apply to join (if they so wish) with the disclosure of their criminal conviction and face correct vetting.
This will save vast amounts of public money, paying convicted officers a full salary until their misconduct hearing is heard. It will also save the time and substantial costs of the misconduct hearing themselves, which can cost upwards of tens of thousands of pounds.
Even Wayne Couzens, who admitted to the rape and murder of Sarah Everard, required an accelerated misconduct hearing. It is ridiculous that any police officer who has faced the high bar of the criminal justice system should need to be tried in other costly civil proceedings.
The only way to see such a change is by petitioning to the Government.
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/636996
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