Cambridgeshire Constabulary
Ethics Playing Cards
Copyright © 2025 Compass Ethics
A
You have privileged information, you are not allowed to share it, but it is something that will affect your partner and their policing career. How do you manage this?
Case Studies
- What if you turn the question around? You discover that your partner secretly knows something that can impact your career, but they refuse to share for professional reasons.
- What if PSD has asked about your knowledge of a close work colleague's partner in relation to the potential committing of an offence. You are a long-term friend and have been to their wedding. What do you do?
Discussion
- What type of information can be (or should be) shared vs. what cannot?
- What are the personal repercussions if you didn't share/ don’t share sensitive information?
- What are the professional repercussions if you share/don’t share sensitive information?
- Is the organisational hierarchy aware of your potential conflicts of interest? Can they help you and your partner?
- Consider the implications for trust in the profession.
You should seek advice from a trusted superior or legal advisor within your organisation. Maintain professional boundaries and consider the long-term impact on trust and professional relationships. HM Government articulates the Seven Golden Rules of information sharing: necessary, proportionate, relevant, adequate, accurate, timely, and secure: Ensure that information you share is necessary for the purpose for which you are sharing it, is shared only with those individuals who need to have it, is accurate and up-to-date, is shared in a timely fashion, and is shared securely.
It would also be useful to familiarise yourself with the Information Sharing Procedure. It states that you will only share information within a legal framework and in any event, for a legitimate policing purpose. This would not include merely for personal reasons. This would be a breach of the standards of professional behaviour. Such a matter would usually attract a ‘risk management meeting’ to protect the officer, organisation, and afford advice as to how the officer proceeds.
Talking to your partner and/or close family and friends about why you are not able to share certain information ahead of time is a good way of managing later expectations.
Whistleblowing: A police officer should be able to make disclosures about wrongdoing to their organisation so that problems can be identified and resolved quickly within the service. There are some situations in which a police officer may feel that there is a genuine public interest in them disclosing something beyond this environment. Whistleblowing can have serious and unintended consequences, particularly where disclosures are made to external parties, thus it should never be taken lightly. Officers should use their constabulary’s whistleblowing procedures and can seek advice from a Police Federation Representative when considering making such a disclosure. If another law is broken in the process, or the Official Secrets Act is breached, the individual blowing the whistle may not be protected, and could face serious repercussions. However, if a qualifying disclosure is done in an appropriate way, and is in the public interest, it may be considered a protected disclosure, meaning the person involved has a statutory right not to be subjected to any detriment as a result. See the Police Federation guidance which can be found here whistleblowing and in the supporting documents section.
It would also be useful to familiarise yourself with the Information Sharing Procedure. It states that you will only share information within a legal framework and in any event, for a legitimate policing purpose. This would not include merely for personal reasons. This would be a breach of the standards of professional behaviour. Such a matter would usually attract a ‘risk management meeting’ to protect the officer, organisation, and afford advice as to how the officer proceeds.
Talking to your partner and/or close family and friends about why you are not able to share certain information ahead of time is a good way of managing later expectations.
Whistleblowing: A police officer should be able to make disclosures about wrongdoing to their organisation so that problems can be identified and resolved quickly within the service. There are some situations in which a police officer may feel that there is a genuine public interest in them disclosing something beyond this environment. Whistleblowing can have serious and unintended consequences, particularly where disclosures are made to external parties, thus it should never be taken lightly. Officers should use their constabulary’s whistleblowing procedures and can seek advice from a Police Federation Representative when considering making such a disclosure. If another law is broken in the process, or the Official Secrets Act is breached, the individual blowing the whistle may not be protected, and could face serious repercussions. However, if a qualifying disclosure is done in an appropriate way, and is in the public interest, it may be considered a protected disclosure, meaning the person involved has a statutory right not to be subjected to any detriment as a result. See the Police Federation guidance which can be found here whistleblowing and in the supporting documents section.