WIREDGOV

A West Midlands police constable has received a final written warning following our investigation into allegations that he had made offensive and racist comments to a man during a property search. The interaction was filmed and subsequently posted on social media.

The officer was recorded on a mobile phone while searching the property in Coventry on 24 August last year (2017). He was filmed saying to a black man who was a visitor to the flat: “Are you gonna go Black Lives Matter on us are you?” and then telling him “You would be the first one I’d shoot if I had a gun, definitely.”

A complaint was made on behalf of the man the comments were directed at, and following a referral from the force we began an investigation which looked at the conduct of those officers present.

Our investigation included reviewing footage from the incident, taking statements from witnesses and interviewing the officers present. It was completed in March but release of our findings has awaited conclusion of misconduct proceedings.

We found that the police constable who made the remarks had a case to answer for misconductand the force agreed. At a misconduct meeting held by West Midlands Police on 8 June the case was proven and the officer given a final written warning.

The officer told our investigator that he regretted making the comments and, while he accepted they had been unprofessional and clumsy, he had not meant them to be racist, offensive or threatening.

Another police constable was dealt with through management action after it was agreed by the force that he had a case to answer for misconduct for not challenging the comments made by his colleague.

IOPC Regional Director Commissioner Derrick Campbell said: “We are conscious of the impact on public confidence in policing such an incident can have. The remarks made were inappropriate and the officer who made them has been sanctioned accordingly after the force agreed with the findings of our investigation.”

We found no case to answer for two other officers as there was no evidence that that they had heard the comments. It was agreed that one of them, an acting sergeant, required performance measures over not correctly logging the search of the property.