Leicestershire Police officer ‘deliberately’ accessed confidential information on force computers

A Leicestershire police officer “willfully” and “deliberately” accessed confidential information from the force’s records. PC Hiron Miah claimed “poor training” led to multiple searches, which followed the incidents in Loughborough.

A misconduct hearing found that PC Miah made several searches on the force’s Niche and STORM computer systems without warrant between October and November 2022. The majority related to reports from the Charnwood policing area.

The breaches only came to light when PC MIah questioned whether a restriction still applied preventing him from working in and around Loughborough. An audit of PC Miah’s actions on Niche and STORM soon revealed a series of confidential searches, all “with no police purpose”, according to investigators.

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A search even found him copying and pasting details from a STORM log relating to a breach of bail conditions – but he later claimed he did not know why he had copied the information. Another saw him using Google to better understand a violent incident reported in Loughborough, while further searches of police systems related to other serious crimes including ABH, robbery and drug-related offences.

Custody log details of someone he knew were also searched on police systems. Auditors found the search, of someone at Leicester’s Keyham Lane police station for a drug supply/production offence, was carried out out of “curiosity” rather than for police reasons.

In interviews with the force’s Policing Standards Department, PC Miah claimed he did not know the searches were wrong because of “poor training” he had received, but admitted they were done without a warrant. He also told investigators that many of the searches were due to “idle snooping” on police systems or to find reports that could help them later.

The admissions saw PC Miah undergo a police misconduct hearing at Leicestershire Police headquarters in Enderby earlier this month. The officer was accused of breaching standards of professional conduct, including confidentiality, honesty and integrity.

The hearing, chaired by an independent and legally qualified chair, accepted that PC Miah may have had “limited training” due to Covid-19. However, the commission said this did not justify that the searches they found were both “intentional and deliberate”, but acknowledged that none of the searches were shared with anyone else.

The committee also found no harm was caused by the searches, but said there was “potential” harm to the force’s reputation. It also found that PC Miah had shown “genuine remorse” for his actions and that no attempt had been made to conceal his actions.

In its findings, the misconduct panel found that PC Miah had breached professional standards and the officer was handed a three-year final written warning. Detective Superintendent Alison Tompkins, head of the force’s Professional Standards Department, said: “Officers and staff in the force are trusted to deal with information obtained in the course of their policing duties fairly. Information should only be accessed for legitimate police purposes and should be kept in the strictest confidence and properly protected.

“Officers and staff are given initial training in the correct use of information and we continue to share messages in place about the importance of this. Where information has been obtained without a police purpose, we will investigate and take appropriate action.”