Former Cambridgeshire police officer committed gross misconduct

A former police officer has been found to have committed gross misconduct.

PC Lee Rumsey, who was based at Headquarters in Huntingdon as part of the Road Policing Unit, resigned from Cambridgeshire constabulary last month.

He had been the driver of a police car pursuing another vehicle along Morley Way in Woodston, Peterborough on August 29, 2017.

A criminal trial, after which he was cleared of dangerous driving, heard his marked car had hit a fleeing suspect.

During the trial earlier this year, the court heard PC Rumsey had been with a colleague, Sgt Declan McDonagh, on a routine Cambridgeshire police patrol when they pursued a silver Mercedes after it over-steered on a roundabout.The Mercedes then crashed and the driver ran off.

Prosecutor Benedict Peers claimed the officer twice drove deliberately at the fleeing suspect, however, he said PC Rumsey told his colleague ‘sorry mate, I had a senior moment and hit the wrong pedal’.

An independent panel in Peterborough found the former officer had breached the Standards of Professional Behaviour for Use of Force, Authority, Respect and Courtesy and Orders and Instructions. The panel agreed that his conduct amounted to gross misconduct and that he would have been given a final written warning had he remained a serving officer.