West Mercia Officer could be sacked over racist messages
The officer, who can't be named for legal reasons, will find out his fate at a misconduct hearing today.
A police officer at West Mercia Police sent racist messages referencing the death of George Floyd - as well as having sent other messages with racial undertones to a colleague.
The officer went before a West Mercia Police misconduct hearing on Monday (22 May) who found that the messages he sent were racist.
Barney Branston, representing the police service, said that the officer had admitted to gross misconduct but denied having racial motives.
The misconduct hearing heard that the officer faced allegations following a WhatsApp conversation with another unnamed officer.
Those came to light when the other officer was investigated for an unrelated matter.
Mr Branston gave an example of when the officer sent a message to his colleage known as Officer Z – who is also protected by an anonymity order imposed by the misconduct hearing.
After the officer had failed at a promotional board, while a black colleague was successful, he said he would “blacken up” for the next time he appeared before the board.
The officer later apologised to his black colleague for the messages sent.
The misconduct hearing was also shown a TikTok video sent by the officer facing allegations to his colleague. Mr Branston claimed that the video had racial undertones.
Mr Branston said that a further image referenced the death of George Floyd.
The officer also told Officer Z to search for a film in Google of which the title included a racist word. A subsequent message followed with laughing emojis.
Mr Branston added that when you put that search term into Google a warning about the racist nature of the content followed.