Revealed: Number of police officers barred from returning to Shropshire's force
Fresh figures show the county's police force has barred 33 officers from returning to policing in the past five years.
The figures have been revealed by the College of Policing, which show that across the country more than 730 police officers were sacked and barred from returning to policing last year.
For the force which covers Shropshire, West Mercia Police, the data shows that six officers were barred last year - with a total of 33 over the last five years.
According to the College of Policing, the 735 officers who were placed on the barred list in the year to March 31 2025, was up from 593 the previous year, an increase of 24 per cent.
West Mercia's figures fell over the same period, dropping from 14 in 2023/24 to six in 2024/25.
In 2020/21 there were two officers barred from the force, six in 2021/22, and five in 2022/23.
In March this year West Mercia Detective Sergeant Jonathan Cooper, 54, was sacked following an accelerated misconduct hearing.
The hearing found that the actions of Detective Sergeant Cooper, who was based in the economic crime unit at Hindlip, amounted to gross misconduct and seriously breached the police standards.
The hearing heard that between December 26, 2019, and December 9, 2020, the officer used his personal mobile phone to send four memes to friends, via WhatsApp, which were racist and offensive to those with physical/mental disabilities.
There have been a number of other officers from the force who have faced barred in recent years.
They include former Ludlow Police Constable, Mark Cranfield, who was found guilty of two counts of misconduct in public office, following a trial at Birmingham Crown Court in December 2024.
The 52-year-old former royal protection officer, who was previously employed by The Met and West Mercia Police, was found not guilty of one offence under the Computer Misuse Act, 1990, but had also previously pleaded guilty to one count of computer misuse.
The case followed an investigation by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).
