Greater Manchester Police sackings over homeworking ‘key jamming’

Four members of Greater Manchester Police (GMP) staff have been sacked and barred from policing while two others have already resigned over so-called “key-jamming”, a practice in which people can falsely appear to be working.

GMP’s anti-corruption unit identified “abnormal keystroke behaviour” on force-issued devices.

The force said staff members from a range of departments were involved and that each person was found to have spent thousands of minutes pretending to be working when they were not.

Further hearings will continue into next year, a force spokesperson said, adding that it had issued 28 misconduct papers on officers, staff and contractors since September.

Deputy Chief Constable Terry Woods said: “I’m grateful to the work of the anti-corruption unit for conducting this proactive operation to root out poor performance, dishonesty and conduct that is just not conducive with working for GMP.

“This work is doing a great service to the public and our workforce to ensure that the people of Greater Manchester can have confidence that their police force will not stand for the tiny minority that reflect badly on the thousands of decent, hard-working staff that serve the public so brilliantly every day.

“We’re prepared to lead the way in proactively tackling police corruption and misconduct.

“As these recent proactive investigations demonstrate, the chief and I mean it when we say we’re serious about ‘rooting out’ and ‘booting out’.”

GMP said working from home privileges continue to be revoked for those involved while further investigation takes place.

Additionally, line managers of those involved have been spoken to and are facing greater scrutiny, it added.