A Cambridgeshire police officer who lied about a day off and also used a police computer to check up on his partner has been fired for gross misconduct. Chief Constable Nick Dean chaired a ‘special case hearing’ on Tuesday at police headquarters in Huntingdon that concluded that PC Malcolm Bush be dismissed without notice.
Bush faced two allegations:
1: That on November 30, 2023, whilst on duty, he asked his supervisor via a Teams call for discretionary leave on December 7, 2023, to attend the funeral of his grandfather.
The misconduct hearing was told that Bush did not attend the funeral of his grandfather, but the leave was to attend the funeral of his partner’s friend.
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2: That November 26, 2023, Bush used the police computer system Enterprise to complete a free text search on his partner.
Bush was then alleged to have viewed incident reports relating to that search.
Bush, who was based in Huntingdon, was found to have breached the standards of professional behaviour in respect of honesty and integrity, discreditable conduct, orders and instructions and confidentiality, amounting to gross misconduct.
Chief Constable Dean said: “Honesty and integrity are fundamental requirements for any police officer.
“The public’s expectation is that the police service holds and uses data in the strictest confidence and should only be used for a policing purpose.
“The conduct that this officer has displayed falls way short of these standards and has damaged the reputation of the constabulary and the police service.
“Importantly it has dented the trust and confidence that the public have in police.”
