The Authority oversaw a Police investigation into a complaint that an officer accessed the Police National Intelligence Application (NIA) and obtained information concerning a traffic offence committed by the complainant. This information was allegedly passed to an associate, who was then thought to have shared it with a journalist.
Police found no evidence that this was the case, and the Authority agrees that the information that was allegedly shared would not have been accessible to the officer via NIA or any other Police computer system to which they had access.
It became apparent during Police enquiries that the officer had occasionally accessed NIA for reasons that did not constitute valid policing purposes. An employment enquiry was completed in respect of this usage and an appropriate employment sanction was imposed.
The Authority agrees with the findings reached by Police.
IPCA: 22-13732