A FORMER police officer who used the force's computer systems to look up personal information about his girlfriends and family members has been jailed.
Robert Kirk admitted carrying out almost 500 searches over the course of eight years in which he accessed confidential data relating to partners, their family members and even his own children.
Yesterday he was sentenced to eight months in prison.
Kirk, 47, who admitted misconduct in a public office, also used police records to check out prospective neighbours in areas he was interested in moving to.
Sentencing him at Derby Crown Court, Judge David Pugsley told him: "References point to a hard-working police officer who had worked well, who was promising, but you know what you did was a major breach of trust.
"Many, many people – police officers, medical practitioners, nurses, lawyers – learn things in confidence and if someone goes along to any of those professional people and finds that what they had said in confidence had been exposed to the gaze of someone else, they would feel betrayed."
He went on: "There have sadly been prosecutions of cases of this sort and in a closed community such as a police force I cannot accept that you were unaware that what you were doing was wrong."
The court heard that between 2002 and 2010 Kirk, of West Bridgford, used the four main police databases to look at information relating to at least three partners both before and during he was in a relationship with them, and also once the relationship was over. He also accessed sensitive data on people linked with them and his own family members.
Kirk admitted the offence on October 1 and immediately resigned from his post, which he had held since 1985.
Speaking after yesterday's hearing, investigating officer DI Rob Allison said: "The sentence handed down to Robert Kirk should send a clear message that no one is above the law. As we have stated before, Kirk repeatedly exploited his position, which gave him access to confidential information not just about the individuals he had become personally involved with, but potentially, thousands of people.
"Trust and integrity are paramount to the police service, and action will be take against those individuals whose conduct falls below the standard that the public would expect of officers.
"That is what has happened to Robert Kirk. After 27 years' service he has lost has job and now he must serve a prison sentence, which is perhaps the greatest indignity to befall any serving police officer."
