CORRUPT cops, sex offenders and violent officers are among 86 North-East police workers to have been arrested in recent years, The Northern Echo can reveal.

Since 2015, more than 900 officers and almost 300 police staff have been apprehended while working for UK forces.

Among those jailed for their crimes in our region are sexual predators David Waller and Chris Hogg.

Former Cleveland Police officer Waller was imprisoned for 12 years in July over a string of sex offences against five teen girls while ex-Detective Constable Christopher Hogg – who worked for North Yorkshire Police at the time of his arrest – was put behind bars in 2017 after being convicted of indecently assaulting children in the 1980s.

Other notable arrests include assistant chief constable Adrian Roberts, who was arrested and suspended from his role with Cleveland Police.

In April, the force said he had been suspended on suspicion of gross misconduct but would not clarify why the senior officer was apprehended.

Corrupt cop Jon Snaith was dismissed from Northumbria Police and was told an “immediate custodial sentence” was inevitable after pleading guilty to charges of police corruption and offering to supply cocaine.

Once dubbed a hero for life-saving work in the line of duty, ex-North Yorkshire firearms officer Paul Duffield ended up behind bars in a fall from grace earlier this year.

A judge told him “corruption is a creeping cancer” and jailed Duffield for ten months over a scam that saw him charge upmarket hotels for advice he should have provided for free.

Other employees, mostly officers of varying ranks, were convicted of crimes ranging from fraud to GBH, drink-driving, harassment and serious sex offences.

A joint investigation between The Northern Echo and Newsquest’s Data Investigations Unit analysed disclosures from the region’s forces and found that around a third of the arrests resulted in cases being dropped without further action and that seven officers were acquitted or found not guilty at court.

At least 18 force employees were dismissed in relation to their arrest and many more sanctioned by their force, despite some being cleared of offences by the criminal justice system.

One Cleveland officer received a final warning despite being acquitted of a sex offence and misconduct in a public office while another was dismissed after being cleared of similar crimes.

In Northumbria, a written warning was issued to a PC cleared of assault, while a special constable accused of inciting a male under 13 to engage in a sexual act resigned from the force, despite the case being dropped.

At least 22 officers resigned or retired from their roles after being arrested.

Phill Matthews, conduct lead for the Police Federation, said the data reflected efforts made by the police to weed out a minority of unwanted criminals amongst their ranks.

He said increased scrutiny of police activity could also be a factor, adding: “We are a reflection of society so we will get one or two who are corrupt or attempting to get into the force to get some criminal gain from it.

“Where these cases happen, they can make headlines but they do come to the fore very quickly.

“There are one or two real bad people that get into policing for malicious endeavours deliberately and are there to subvert and I have no qualms at all about them going to prison.”

The Home Office, National Police Chiefs Council and the Independent Office of Police Conduct stressed that efforts were currently being made to overhaul and reform the police disciplinary system.

Changes introduced in December 2017 saw initiatives including the police barred list introduced to improve transparency and accountability, with the former officers’ regime ensuring that investigations could continue despite resignation or retirement.

In England and Wales, around two in every thousand police officers were arrested - equating to approximately one per cent of the work force over four years. 

About half of the police workers arrested across the UK had their cases dropped by the criminal justice system, while 31 per cent of them were convicted, cautioned or otherwise reprimanded in relation to offences committed. 

At least 283 employees were dismissed while 137 resigned or retired. Forces handed out 43 final warnings in connection with arrests for suspected offences including rape, violence and drink-driving.

Arrest figures could be considerably higher due to forces restricting the information disclosed in response to a Freedom of Information request.  The data analysed did not include officers and staff charged following voluntary interview attendance.