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UK: NCS Corruption investigation

01 May 2001

The National Crime Squad (NCS), which began operations in April 1998, has expelled 61 of its officers following allegations of indiscipline and corruption. The NCS employs 1,350 detectives seconded from former regional crime squads in England and Wales and 420 civilian staff that work from 32 locations across the country, targeting "national and transnational serious and organised crime". The 61 officers under investigation have been "prematurely returned to their forces"; their number includes seven officers who have been accused of "allegations of financial or evidential corruption". The investigation, revealed in a report entitled Professional standards in the National Crime Squad returns to forces and investigations, published exactly three years after the NCS was launched, followed on from a series of raids in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire in April during which five current and two former members of the squad were arrested. Most of the other officers returned to their forces were alleged to have failed to meet with the squads "standards of behaviour" relating to drink driving, the loss of police property or other disciplinary matters. All disciplinary enquiries will be carried out by "the parent [police] force or another force" in liaison with the NCS Professional Standards Unit.