Kettering cop accessed force computer for information about hometown without 'lawful authority'
A Northamptonshire police gross misconduct disciplinary hearing has determined a former police constable would have been dismissed without notice if he hadn’t already walked away from his job.
Chaired by Chief Constable Ivan Balhatchet, the panel heard ‘incontrovertible evidence’ that Mason Smith, when a police officer based in Kettering, had accessed the force’s Storm computer system without 'lawful authority' to find out information about three specific incidents and other information about activities in his hometown of Daventry.
The accelerated gross misconduct disciplinary hearing was held by Northamptonshire Police at force headquarters on September 23, 2025.
Panel members heard that PC Smith ‘without a policing purpose and or lawful authority’ had accessed Storm while at work at Kettering Police Station as a response officer 70 times in June 2024 and five times in December 2024
While off duty he accessed information using the system 62 times in December 2024 and once on New Year’s Day 2025.
PC Smith, who joined the force in February 2023, resigned from the force on May 9, 2025, after going off sick in February 2025. He did not attend the hearing but ‘apologised for letting himself down by virtue of his actions’.
The panel was told that the conduct was in breach of Northamptonshire Police’s Data Protection Policy and PC Smith’s actions undermined public confidence in the police.
In the outcome report, Mr Balhatchet said: “It is clear that the former officer had no policing purpose for accessing the huge amounts of information on police systems in question, and that in fact he was accessing the information due to its links with his home area of Daventry – an area which upon the carrying out of vetting it had been determined he ought not to be posted to.
"He has clearly deviated significantly from Northamptonshire Police’s Data Protection policy, thus breaching the Orders and Instructions Standard.”
The Chief Constable determined that, had PC Smith still been a serving police officer, he would have been dismissed without notice.
Former officer Smith’s details will be included within the Police Barred List (Regulation 3(2) of the Police Barred List and Police Advisory List Regulations 2017).
He has ten days to appeal the decision.