Former Met Police officers admit sending racist WhatsApps

Did anyone see Channel 4 News last night about behaviour in the West Midlands Fire arms Unit.

A former female member made 75 successful allegations against officers on the Unit and all have been accepted by WM police.

Sexist behaviour - sending images and videos of hardcore porn to each other.
Strip searching female officers as part of a training exercise
Not issuing any body armour suitable for female officers
Rating female members of the public on sh@@ability when on duty in Central Birmingham

Racist behaviour - referring to 14 year old Afgan female teenager as "Tikka Masala" in official conversations about her protection after she had been shot and wounded by the Taliban. She has come to a hospital in Birmingham to recover.

Making a very derogatory video about Irish Travellers called Potato Head - the video was made to celebrate the retirement of the WM Chief Constable.

It all seemed out of a different era.

I was also surprised to find out there are 250 officers in the W/M Firearms Unit - seems alot to me considering the Police Force. are so stretched.

The former Equalities and Diversity officer from the West Midlands said he believed it all. He thought one major problem was the people at the top don't enforce the correct standards through disciplinary action because they have often been in the force over 30 years and its the only work culture they have known.
 
I recently employed an ex copper from the Brighton area. Getting to know him, I was amazed at his lack of understanding of where the line should be drawn with regards to expressing his views.
When the business went bust he also stole a lot of kit/stock that he was not entitled to. He had been very well looked after in terms of severance and I had personally loaned him some money to move home. He didnt repay that fully either.
I provided a reference to another employer afterwards and let them know that I thought he should be in prison.
 
Ex cop here (dons tin hat and winces as he types).

This sort of behaviour is appalling, should be driven out of policing and does not accord with anything I ever saw or know of in my career - in fact I find hard to believe that people like that exist in policing, apart from in very small pockets, but I guess that occasionally you are going to get people with intolerance and prejudice when you recruit from society and its often hard to pick up through vetting.

But I am not so naive to think that it doesn't exist, but maybe when pay and conditions are eroded so much over time the quality of recruits follows suit.
 
I was surprised that they all seem to have retired in their early or mid 40s. Is that routine in police forces or do the met officers get paid a lot more and can afford to retire early?
 
I had a mate in the Met who I’ve grown apart from since he left his wife (my wife’s best mate). He was a personable bloke on many levels but sad to say I could also well imagine him getting involved in this kind of stuff, based on a few things he said to me over the years that I wasn’t entirely comfortable with. I don’t believe they are all like this though.
 
I think social media/free hardcore porn since 2007 has created what can be a toxic culture that there was not the opportunity for in the past. It is concerning.

The West Midlands Firearms Unit could well be untypical of all police. I would guess the guns stuff could attract more extreme macho personality types.

The Police like the Fire brigade can retire on a pension @ 50 - it is not the full pension but enough the live on. One of my uncles in the Police retired @ 50. He had joined the Police straight from school. He would be last person you would associate with this sort of behaviour, but he was in the Police in the 1960s/70s/80s/early 90s and it was not the Met. Police!
 
Jonny Ingbar said:
Ex cop here (dons tin hat and winces as he types).

This sort of behaviour is appalling, should be driven out of policing and does not accord with anything I ever saw or know of in my career - in fact I find hard to believe that people like that exist in policing, apart from in very small pockets, but I guess that occasionally you are going to get people with intolerance and prejudice when you recruit from society and its often hard to pick up through vetting.

But I am not so naive to think that it doesn't exist, but maybe when pay and conditions are eroded so much over time the quality of recruits follows suit.
Click to expand...

Just a few bad apples eh? Nowadays it sounds like the type of copper you were are in the minority.
 
MolteniArcore said:
Just a few bad apples eh? Nowadays it sounds like the type of copper you were are in the minority.
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It does sound that way doesn't it and I understand why someone could take that view, because the media amplify such cases.

I think policing has lost its way, largely speaking, it's been critically under underfunded and lacks proper leadership, but what I would say is that we mostly only hear about these cases because other police officers have challenged behaviours.
 
I've done quite a lot of work for ex and current police officers over the years and they've all been good people who I'd imagine would never be within a million miles of this kind of behaviour.
It's worth remembering 99 good examples aren't newsworthy, 1 bad one is.
 
Jonny Ingbar said:
It does sound that way doesn't it and I understand why someone could take that view, because the media amplify such cases.

I think policing has lost its way, largely speaking, it's been critically under underfunded and lacks proper leadership, but what I would say is that we mostly only hear about these cases because other police officers have challenged behaviours.
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I’m sure most are like yourself TBH but there is something wrong with the force atm, likely for the reasons you state.
 
Few bad apples? - 75 complaints in the W/M Firearms unit all upheld suggests more than a couple of police officers were involved and some of the problems/issues were quite embedded. There was also a wide range of issues, for example it wasn't just inappropriate language. Its probably still a minority, but more than the odd 1 or 2.
 
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Redwurzel said:
Few bad apples? - 75 complaints in the WM Firearms units all upheld suggests more than a couple of police officers were involved and some of the problems/issues were quite embedded. There was also a wide range of issues, for example it wasn't just inappropriate language. Its probably still a minority, but more than the odd 1 or 2.
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We would need to see figures for the police force more generally.

We have 140k serving officers. There is bound to be complaints. You can only know the scale of the problem if figures are published. They may well be, but I wouldn't know where to find them for internal complainst.

There are plenty from members of the public, that much we do know.
 
Laughing - the W/M Firearms Unit is 250 officers and the 75 complaints were from a former female member of the Unit. The issue I was bringing up from the Channel 4 programne was a pocket of inappropriate practice/stuff from the 1970s.
 
Redwurzel said:
Laughing - the W/M Firearms Unit is 250 officers and the 75 complaints were from a former female member of the Unit. The issue I was bringing up from the Channel 4 programne was a pocket of inappropriate practice/stuff from the 1970s.
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For that particulr unit it looks bad, I agree. Apologies I thought you were referring to the police force more generally.

The problem in that unit is clearly leadership.
 
Grinds my gears when the top brass resign prior to being investigated, to escape scrutiny & importantly for them: keep their pension & benefits..

www.express.co.uk

Hillsborough police chief quits but keeps his pension

A TOP policeman accused of smearing Liverpool fans over the Hillsborough disaster quit his £215,000-a-year role yesterday – just hours before his police authority were set to demand he stand down.
www.express.co.uk www.express.co.uk

Shouldn't be allowed..
 
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