Former Hertfordshire Police officer who shared sensitive data would have been sacked, panel rules

Former PC Alexandra Nicolaou sent a photograph including logs of nine incidents and the full name, address and date of birth of a wanted person to her partner, Mr A, in June 2022.

She followed it up with a message adding: “Don’t show no one that! Il [sic] get the sack x”.

Later the same month, on June 16, Ms Nicolaou unlawfully accessed police systems to find nine records relating to incidents and investigations involving Mr A.

She was convicted under the Computer Misuse Act for her June 16 actions, but has not yet been sentenced.

Ms Nicolaou, who did not attend the misconduct hearing, accepted that she had undertaken unlawful searches, but added that Mr A had been “abusive, controlling and coercive” and that she had experienced domestic abuse.

The panel considered the allegations against Ms Nicolaou on the balance of probabilities, and panel chair Assistant Chief Constable Vaughan Lukey said he was satisfied that Ms Nicolaou knew her actions breached police rules.

He said in the panel’s report: “The former officer offered no, or no satisfactory, explanation as to why she was accessing the relevant records.

“They related to her then partner and were not linked to her work.

“The former officer knew, or should have known, that it is unacceptable to access police records relating to a partner.”

The panel found that Ms Nicolaou’s actions breached standards of professional behaviour relating to confidentiality, orders and instructions, and discreditable conduct.

Their report added: “Police have extremely privileged authority and access to sensitive data and the public are entitled to expect officers to act with unremitting care in this regard.

“Trust and confidence would be harmed if they knew that police officers accessed and/or shared their data for no policing purpose or personal gain, and it is this principle of trust and confidence that policing by consent relies upon.”