Nine officers at Staffordshire Police have been dismissed during the past six months as part of action to crack down on corruption and inappropriate behaviour.

Three of the officers were dismissed for sexual misconduct, Staffordshire Police's Chief Constable Chris Noble said at the force's latest performance meeting – and a report revealed that there has been an increase in reporting of incidents.

When he took office in Staffordshire in 2021 the Chief Constable vowed to take a zero tolerance approach to any unacceptable officer behaviour. His comments came after former Met Police officer Wayne Couzens was convicted of murdering Sarah Everard.

In his report to the latest police performance meeting Chief Constable Noble said: "In March Baroness Casey published her report into the standards of behaviour and internal culture of the Metropolitan Police Service. The report gave police forces an opportunity to review current practices, policies and procedures to ensure that we are as inclusive, fair and work with the upmost integrity, to give confidence amongst colleagues but also within our communities.

Chief Constable vowed to take a zero tolerance approach to unacceptable behaviour when he took office in 2021 (Staffordshire Police).

In Staffordshire we have implemented 'Know the Line' training specifically about sexual misconduct and harassment; over 1,200 officers and staff have received the training. We have seen an increase in reporting of sexual misconduct but this is seen as a positive with staff having the confidence to report and a confidence in the internal investigations.

"A broader standards campaign concentrating on driving up standards across the organisation and having pride in policing has also been introduced. This focuses on standards of appearance, including uniform and across social media, personal responsibility for kit, vehicles, data and information and workplace."

Speaking at the meeting he said: "Despite lots of good work going on in policing, clearly there are some real challenges nationally around the conduct of police officers and staff. The public quite rightly expect to hear about what we're doing about it proactively as well as reactively.

A report presentated at the latest performance meeting revraled there has been an increase in reporting of incidents (Staffordshire Police).

"Whilst the Baroness Casey report was very much built and borne out of her enquiries into the Met over many months, a lot of the themes and concepts are ones we have recognised at Staffordshire Police, many of which we were very well on with in terms of our Know the Line campaigns and our investment in professional standards and anti-corruption. In my tenure I've dismissed nine officers; three of which involved sexual misconduct, and there's a number of other cases involving that same types of behaviour coming up in the next number of months.

"While I don't believe there's a culture or common set of behaviours in policing, we can never be complacent. In Staffordshire my approach is very clear – we will go looking for corrupt officers as opposed to waiting for them to offend and come to our attention by other means."

READ MORE: Work continues on Stoke's first Greggs drive-thru as signage is approved

Free from clickbait, pop-up ads and unwanted surveys, Stoke Nub News is a quality online newspaper for our city.

Subscribe to our FREE weekly newsletter email HERE - just click the 'SIGN UP' button.

Please consider following Stoke Nub News on Facebook or Twitter.