BBC reports:
A Strathclyde Police officer has been charged with illegally obtaining personal information about a man suspected of having a gun.
Sgt Allan Jackson, 44, allegedly ordered two constables to access police records and tell him whether the man held a firearms certificate.
At Kilmarnock Sheriff Court, he denied knowingly or recklessly breaching the Data Protection Act without consent.
[…]
She said the officer involved had not been suspended.
Read more on BBC.
This is not the first time a Strathclyde police officer has been charged with a breach of the Data Protection Act (see, for example, this case from 2009 or this one from 2010, but I readily acknowledge that I am puzzled as to why some of these cases result in charges and others don’t. Is Strathclye just more diligent about pursuing these types of situations than other departments or is there some other explanation?