After 10 months of battling with the Independent Police Complaints Commission to reveal the ranks of all police officers issued with misconduct notices,...

After 10 months of battling with the Independent Police Complaints Commission to reveal the ranks of all police officers issued with misconduct notices, for their part in the Rotherham child abuse scandal, the IPCC have finally relented. On the 13th April, they sent a final follow up response to a Freedom of Information Request made by this website.

Since June of 2016, this site has been making repeated requests for information to establish how far up the ranks of South Yorkshire Police the wilful disregard of child abuse had gone. The IPCC revealed the data piecemeal, then refused to disclose the ranks of two remaining officers. They argued that disclosing the data would lead to the officers being readily identified, thereby placing them ‘at risk’. I appealed against this decision to the ICO on the grounds that rank does not constitute personal data and that the IPCC had no right to assume the information was being requested simply to ‘out’ the officers involved.

The IPCC, true to form, went into full cop protection mode, dug their heels in and refused to cooperate. It took a decision notice of the Information Commissioner’s Office, backed up with the threat of a High Court order, before the IPCC finally revealed a full list of all, but one, of the ranks involved.

In their final response, the IPCC confirmed that the highest ranking officer issued with a misconduct notice for their part in the Rotherham Scandal was a Chief Superintendent. They also voluntarily revealed that this officer is now retired. I can only assume they disclosed this fact to protect any officers of similar rank, currently serving with South Yorkshire Police, from being wrongly associated.

Officers handed misconduct notices (in order of rank)

24 Police Constables

7 Sergeants

4 Inspectors

1 Chief Inspector

1 Chief Superintendent

1 Rank Unknown

What is clear, is that whoever this Chief Superintendent is (or was), they took early retirement in a bid to escape any misconduct proceedings. Something a large number of officers involved with the scandal have already done. A typical, justice-dodging tactic, deployed by police officers who are very good at dishing it out, but not so good at taking it.

This leaves us guessing as to the rank of the one remaining officer. If it isn’t another Chief Superintendent (which I highly doubt), that only leaves a Deputy Chief Constable or the Chief Constable himself, as the remaining higher rank, that could have been issued with a misconduct notice.

Orders from the top

The reason I made the request was to ascertain what the highest rank of police officer involved, had been. By doing so it would be easier to determine where the operational policy of ‘going easy’ on the criminal contingent of the muslim community – at the expense of thousands of children – evolved from.

Ever since the details of this sickening rape Jihad was exposed, those in authority have been passing the buck in ever decreasing circles. But it’s clear that the edict of ‘Go hard on the victims, go easy on the muslim community’ must have flowed from the top down. The blame does lay partly with the lower ranking officers, who mindlessly followed their orders, but most of the blame should be redirected to the top ranks, who mindlessly conceived those orders. Who were these people? And why have none of them been disciplined, let alone prosecuted?

Now the IPCC have finally revealed this troubling data, I hope somebody out there will pick up where I left off and chase the disclosure of this last remaining rank, all the way to the Supreme Court. Something I was not willing to do as it could take on average two years before a final decision could be reached. By then the data would be useless, as, whoever this last remaining officer is, will no doubt have escaped through the safety hatch provided to all high ranking corrupt officers, by the equally corrupt IPCC.