Police limitations
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Quick question for the experts!
I know that the police have a duty to inform employers if an offender works in certain categories eg with children. Our son is living with us whilst on pre-charge bail for viewing iioc online. He hasn't informed his employer yet and is carrying on with his job from our house. He was told that there was no need to inform his employer because of the type of job he does.
His oic rang him a few days ago to say that a password he provided wouldn't work and told him if he didn't help them they would contact his employer as it was a work computer. He actually had every intention of helping them as he knew he had definitely provided correct details at the time of his arrest and sure enough it was their inefficiency. This scenario repeated itself the next day with another password and again he helped them. What a ridiculous state of affairs, helping the police proceed with a case against him, doing their job for them!!!!
If this kind of thing happens again (and the oic has already shown that she is inefficient and actually seems to have literacy problems too as she has misunderstood emails our son has sent asking about his bail conditions, replying in totally unhelpful ways or misunderstanding what he's asking altogether) does anyone know whether the Police are allowed to inform an employer about someone's situation when there are no safeguarding issues in the mix and they are in a pre-charging position? I did wonder if the threat was bluster to get our son to co-operate knowing that he wouldn't want to risk his company knowing yet.
I know that the police have a duty to inform employers if an offender works in certain categories eg with children. Our son is living with us whilst on pre-charge bail for viewing iioc online. He hasn't informed his employer yet and is carrying on with his job from our house. He was told that there was no need to inform his employer because of the type of job he does.
His oic rang him a few days ago to say that a password he provided wouldn't work and told him if he didn't help them they would contact his employer as it was a work computer. He actually had every intention of helping them as he knew he had definitely provided correct details at the time of his arrest and sure enough it was their inefficiency. This scenario repeated itself the next day with another password and again he helped them. What a ridiculous state of affairs, helping the police proceed with a case against him, doing their job for them!!!!
If this kind of thing happens again (and the oic has already shown that she is inefficient and actually seems to have literacy problems too as she has misunderstood emails our son has sent asking about his bail conditions, replying in totally unhelpful ways or misunderstanding what he's asking altogether) does anyone know whether the Police are allowed to inform an employer about someone's situation when there are no safeguarding issues in the mix and they are in a pre-charging position? I did wonder if the threat was bluster to get our son to co-operate knowing that he wouldn't want to risk his company knowing yet.
If it's a work computer it probably would be legitimate to speak to the employer if they needed access or had suspicion that the work computer was being used for illegal purposes. Disclosure shouldn't be used as a punishment though for things unrelated to work, unless a failure to cooperate gives them genuine new concerns. Courts can order passwords to be surrendered up on pain of further prosecution.
They are NOT allowed to inform employers unless there is a good reason (risk etc) and threatening to do so to throw their weight around is disgusting.
Please note down the date and times of calls and screenshot the call record and write down exactly what was said.
If you feel strongly enough I would submit a complaint as it would breaking data protection for her to disclose unnecessarily. If you don't want to then keep it to one side as interactions like this with the police can come in useful at a later date.
Please note down the date and times of calls and screenshot the call record and write down exactly what was said.
If you feel strongly enough I would submit a complaint as it would breaking data protection for her to disclose unnecessarily. If you don't want to then keep it to one side as interactions like this with the police can come in useful at a later date.
Absolutely appalling behaviour on their part. How dare they literally blackmail someone by making threats like this. I have no respect left for our police force. None at all x
I don't wish to be alarmist but if the computer that was seized was company property, how has he managed to keep that from his employer?
Also, although it might not be a legal requirement for him to tell his employer about the situation, it might be a term of his contract or covered by company processes and procedures which will also be contractual.
In my husband's case, although the police took all his IT, they didn't bother with his work computer (thankfully) but he had to disclose nonetheless due to his terms of employment. He is currently under investigation for breaches of various company polices. :( We are waiting for next steps.
That aside, for the police to make threats like that is totally unnecessary and must be very upsetting. Sending hugs x
Also, although it might not be a legal requirement for him to tell his employer about the situation, it might be a term of his contract or covered by company processes and procedures which will also be contractual.
In my husband's case, although the police took all his IT, they didn't bother with his work computer (thankfully) but he had to disclose nonetheless due to his terms of employment. He is currently under investigation for breaches of various company polices. :( We are waiting for next steps.
That aside, for the police to make threats like that is totally unnecessary and must be very upsetting. Sending hugs x
Thank you so much for these replies! It's what I thought and we will indeed be keeping records of all these inaccuracies, threats of disclosure etc. If nothing else, once things have moved along we will definitely be writing to complain. GRRRRR!!!!
Re our son's work contract, Runawaygirl, we've asked him about that as our daughter who works in HR mentioned it. It's the only thing we disagree with whilst helping him to navigate this awful state of affairs, but he's adamant that he wants to wait until he's actually charged and then he's fully expecting to get the sack. He may well be heading for trouble in this area but he's just turned 40 so old enough and ugly enough to decide for himself. Also it's one thing too many for our mental states to deal with at the moment. My husband and I must have aged at least 10 years in the past couple of months :(
Hope things work out for your husband, Runawaygirl xx
Re our son's work contract, Runawaygirl, we've asked him about that as our daughter who works in HR mentioned it. It's the only thing we disagree with whilst helping him to navigate this awful state of affairs, but he's adamant that he wants to wait until he's actually charged and then he's fully expecting to get the sack. He may well be heading for trouble in this area but he's just turned 40 so old enough and ugly enough to decide for himself. Also it's one thing too many for our mental states to deal with at the moment. My husband and I must have aged at least 10 years in the past couple of months :(
Hope things work out for your husband, Runawaygirl xx
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I replied to the first few helpful posts on here last night but as I'm still being moderated the reply hasn't appeared yet so writing another quick 'thank you' to everyone else who has replied now xx
I didn't sleep well last night as the issue of his contract was on my mind. I'd hate him to get into trouble and probably fired when there's a small chance his boss might be merciful if he's honest (regardless of the legal aspects) He is desparate to keep paying his mortgage for as long as possible for the sake of his children's stability which we totally understand but........ However I've just spoken to him (poor thing thinking he was just saying a friendly good morning and I pounced!) and he says when he joined the company it was a new start-up and his contract was a piece of A4 paper which he signed. Since then there has been a staff handbook published which he looked through and there was no mention of anything relevant to his circumstances. So getting sacked is still a strong possibility eventually and I still wonder if he'd do better to fess up sooner rather than later.......but maybe legally he won't be in quite such hot water.
I don't want to identify myself but just to add that alongside our son's investigation his children are now on a Child Protection Plan which was triggered by him having to leave the family home and so no longer able to protect his kids from emotional abuse/harm from his wife. It's a long sad story but the whole situation is very complicated and has gone on for a long time. We always feared that something would happen one day, seeing the stress he was under whilst trying to hold his marriage and family together, but we never dreamt that he would commit a crime like this. We worried that he'd have a mental breakdown or start drinking. We are very pleased that he has put out feelers to have psychotherapy as we believe the past years may have contributed to his actions, albeit nobody twisted his arm to access illegal images so he has total culpability for that and isn't trying to wiggle out of accepting the consequences. We have to face his oic at meetings to do with the CP plan and she has already shown that she is careless with her words......
Anyway, thank you again for all the advice xxx
I didn't sleep well last night as the issue of his contract was on my mind. I'd hate him to get into trouble and probably fired when there's a small chance his boss might be merciful if he's honest (regardless of the legal aspects) He is desparate to keep paying his mortgage for as long as possible for the sake of his children's stability which we totally understand but........ However I've just spoken to him (poor thing thinking he was just saying a friendly good morning and I pounced!) and he says when he joined the company it was a new start-up and his contract was a piece of A4 paper which he signed. Since then there has been a staff handbook published which he looked through and there was no mention of anything relevant to his circumstances. So getting sacked is still a strong possibility eventually and I still wonder if he'd do better to fess up sooner rather than later.......but maybe legally he won't be in quite such hot water.
I don't want to identify myself but just to add that alongside our son's investigation his children are now on a Child Protection Plan which was triggered by him having to leave the family home and so no longer able to protect his kids from emotional abuse/harm from his wife. It's a long sad story but the whole situation is very complicated and has gone on for a long time. We always feared that something would happen one day, seeing the stress he was under whilst trying to hold his marriage and family together, but we never dreamt that he would commit a crime like this. We worried that he'd have a mental breakdown or start drinking. We are very pleased that he has put out feelers to have psychotherapy as we believe the past years may have contributed to his actions, albeit nobody twisted his arm to access illegal images so he has total culpability for that and isn't trying to wiggle out of accepting the consequences. We have to face his oic at meetings to do with the CP plan and she has already shown that she is careless with her words......
Anyway, thank you again for all the advice xxx
My partner never told his work from start to finish, he called in sick when he was in court and was acquitted. Obviously you have a contract to adhere to but in the grand scheme of things breaching an employment contract is F all in comparison to the battle you face potentially on this journey. This is my outlook and I'm not condoning people breaking rules but this journey is bad enough as it is, if you have managed to escape your work being disclosed with an investigation then carry on working and making money whilst planning for possible outcomes. Unfortunately on this journey (as long as contact with children isn't involved around SS and work etc.) honesty is NOT the best policy to third parties.
Most companies won't bother doing anything over a breach in employment contract*
Most companies won't bother doing anything over a breach in employment contract*