Officer committed 'misconduct for failing to challenge perceptions'
A tribunal's ruled on a former Avon and Somerset Police officer who texted a fellow detective with discriminatory remarks about two colleagues.
A former police officer who texted a fellow Bristol detective to say two colleagues who were late to a briefing got away with it because they were Black committed gross misconduct, a tribunal has ruled.
Detective Constable Simon Jones sent Detective Constable Robert Corry a WhatsApp message saying: “If that was you and me, we would get the sack.”
An Avon & Somerset police misconduct panel found that gross misconduct was proven against DC Jones while DC Corry’s behaviour amounted to the less serious finding of misconduct.
The hearing on Thursday, April 4, was told that following an investigation by the professional standards department, the force believed DC Corry was equally at fault for the exchange between the pair, but the panel disagreed.
Announcing the ruling, Legally Qualified Chair Callum Cowx said: “The panel was satisfied that it was DC Jones who made the comment about the two Black officers being late and in relation to that he suggested that he and DC Corry would have been dealt with differently, the inference being because of their colour.
“The panel found that DC Corry failed to challenge DC Jones’s comments and aligned himself with DC Jones’s suggestion that they would have been treated more harshly.”
LQC Cowx said of DC Corry that the “height of his wrongdoing was failing to challenge DC Jones”.
The panel found both had breached a number of standards of professional behaviour for police officers.
Neither former officer attended the hearing and both have since resigned from the constabulary.
Police Federation branch secretary Sgt Tony Henley, representing DC Jones, said the former Bristol detective constable denied writing anything intended to be racist.
He said: “They were talking about someone else. It is simply a case that the messages have been taken out of context.”
Sgt Henley said the conversation took place while both officers, who are white, were off-duty at their homes and on personal devices.
Police Fed rep Det Sgt Andrew Coggins, representing DC Corry, said the ex-officer was already planning to resign before an investigation began and that he had an “unblemished” 14-year police career.
He said: “This is not a case of hate speech.”
At the start of the hearing, the force dropped an allegation that the comments were discriminatory on the grounds of race, although the panel was told that the officers themselves had accepted the texts “looked bad” and could be considered at face value as “racist”.
The hearing resumes at 9am on Friday where a possible sanction against DC Jones will be decided, while the case against DC Corry has now concluded.