Disclosure Officer

The Public Protection Unit (PPU) have an exciting opportunity for a Business Support Assistant to join the Disclosure Team!

The Disclosure Team is responsible for receiving and reviewing Court Orders, ensuring proportionality, and challenging if necessary, conducting research, allocating requests to officers for progression, quality assuring and paginating the product, raising invoices, and liaising with litigants, officers, solicitors, Legal Services, Courts and Local Authorities when queries are raised.

At present, once the initial call-out logs and PNC prints have been collated, all disclosure requests are sent to police officers to complete. The team is due to expand and, once fully expanded, all request relating to non-live investigations will also be progressed by the Disclosure Team.

Role Purpose

The Disclosure Team receive disclosure requests from Children’s Services, Courts, solicitors and private individuals, amongst many others, to support cases heard within the Family Courts.

The team will review the requests, research what is required, collate all the relevant material and review it, redact sensitive information, paginate the product and return to the requestor within the Court-specified timeframes. The Team will also liaise extensively with officers, external partners, Legal Services and Courts in order to provide the best possible service.

Main Duties and Responsibilities:

Receive and assess requests / Court Orders for proportionality, legality and realistic timescales.
Liaise with Legal Services and / or the requestor in cases where the request is deemed to be disproportionate and / or too complex to complete within the designated timeframes.
Research Force systems in order to establish the materials available for disclosure and to ensure that the records found relate to the nominals in question (and not a third party with the same / similar details).
For ‘live’ cases, liaise with relevant OICs and / or Legal Services regarding potential PII applications to withhold disclosure of investigations / materials if the disclosure could jeopardise the case.
Extract the relevant information from Force systems, including but not limited to witness statements, photographs, crime reports, investigation logs, call out logs.
Key Responsibilities:
Receive and assess requests / Court Orders for proportionality, legality and realistic timescales.
Liaise with Legal Services and / or the requestor in cases where the request is deemed to be disproportionate and / or too complex to complete within the designated timeframes.
Research Force systems in order to establish the materials available for disclosure and to ensure that the records found relate to the nominals in question (and not a third party with the same / similar details).
For ‘live’ cases, liaise with relevant OICs and / or Legal Services regarding potential PII applications to withhold disclosure of investigations / materials if the disclosure could jeopardise the case.
Extract the relevant information from Force systems, including but not limited to witness statements, photographs, crime reports, investigation logs, call out logs.
Obtain copies of audio 999 / 101 calls, Body Worn Video, digital interviews and mobile phone downloads where requested.
Redact the documentation ensuring 3rd party details, contact details, Police Intelligence, Police tactics and or any materials that would place police operations and or 3rd parties at risk are removed.
Redact Body Worn Video of 3rd party information.
Redact Digital Interviews of 3rd party information.
Compile the documents / material into a paginated format to allow accessibility by 3rd parties / Courts.
Raise Invoices for materials disclosed during private Family Law matters according to the directions of the court order (such as shared costs).
Dispatch materials via electronic means and / or tracked post.
Deal with any enquiries relating to missing disclosure and / or understanding of the materials provided.

Essential Criteria:

An understanding of PPU investigations is required in order to be able to identify any gaps in materials for disclosure.
Knowledge of Data Protection and GDPR is crucial; A clear understanding is required in order to appreciate the consequences of data breaches and the impact it can have on the Force and / or any 3rd parties.
The ability to manage own workload, ensuring priority is given to compliance deadlines.
The ability to work as part of a team.
Good Communication skills to be able to deal with a range of different people, ranging from police officers, finance staff, Legal Services, 3rd party solicitors, members of the public, solicitors and Family Court Judges.

Desirable Criteria:

Previous experience of collating large amounts of sensitive information and knowledge of redaction, the reasons why this is required and when it should be done.
Good computer skills and good working knowledge of Police systems (this can be taught ‘on the job’ if necessary).

Vetting: Successful applicants will be required to pass Recruitment Vetting and Counter Terrorism Clearance scrutiny prior to commencing their role, this will include a full background & financial disclosure as part of the vetting process.

Medical: Appointment to this role will be dependent upon successfully medical checks, which may include a drugs test and if required a fitness test.

Location: This role is based on-site at West Bromwich Police Station.

Contact: For further information please contact Inspector Raj Dulay at raj.dulay@westmidlands.police.uk.

Prospective officers and staff must be held to a higher standard of behaviour and accountability than members of the public, and that therefore their right to privacy can be fettered in certain circumstances. This is to ensure that members of the police are fully aware and accountable for the unique powers entrusted to them and the standards of professional behaviour they swear to uphold.

West Midlands Police is a Disability Confident Leader - the highest level an organisation can achieve under the scheme run by the Department of Work and Pensions. As part of our commitment we operate a ‘Disability Confident Interview Scheme’ - all candidates who declare a disability and meet the essential criteria for the role will be offered an interview.

It is important to note that there may be occasions where it is not practicable or appropriate to interview all disabled people who meet the essential criteria for the job. For example: in certain recruitment situations such as high-volume, seasonal and high-peak times, the employer may wish to limit the overall numbers of interviews offered to both disabled people and non-disabled people. In these circumstances, the employer could select the candidates who best meet the essential criteria for the job, as they would do for non-disabled applicants.

“Diversity and Inclusion Vision: Maximise the potential of people from all backgrounds through a culture of fairness and inclusion to deliver the best service for our communities”

By choosing to join West Midlands Police you will receive an enhanced benefits package including:

- Fair remuneration with progression opportunities, and access to a very competitive pension scheme

- Enhanced annual leave in additional to public holiday entitlements

- Discounts across travel, parking, daily costs of living and leisure activities

- A comprehensive wellbeing package including 24/7 support, free eye tests and flu jabs