Final written for Met officer following misconduct hearing

15 Jun 2021 11:05 AM

A Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) officer who attempted to form an inappropriate relationship with a woman after arresting her, has been given a final written warning following an investigation by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).

An independently chaired disciplinary panel found gross misconduct proven against PC Andrew Turner at a hearing organised by the force on Monday 14 June. He was found to have breached professional standards of behaviour for authority, respect and courtesy.

We started our independent investigation in June 2020 after a woman complained that PC Turner made inappropriate comments to her after arresting her. He later contacted her by phone. She reported it to police who made a mandatory referral to us.

Evidence gathered during our five-month investigation indicated that PC Turner called her on his personal mobile while he was off duty.

He made flirtatious remarks to the woman, who recorded their conversation and provided it as evidence.

We directed the force to organise a gross misconduct hearing after the MPS disagreed with our findings and proposed dealing with it at the lower level of misconduct.

The panel found that the officer tried to form a personal relationship with her. 

IOPC Regional Director, Sal Naseem, said: “Police officers abusing their position for sexual purposes erodes the trust and confidence of the public, this type of behaviour has no place in policing.

“There are policies and guidance in place to ensure police officers maintain professional boundaries between themselves and members of the public.

“PC Turner crossed this line by accessing a crime report to obtain the woman’s personal details and then making inappropriate comments in a phone call. This officer should have known from the training he received that he was crossing those boundaries.”

We investigated a second officer who was involved in the arrest of the woman and found a case to answer for misconduct for making a sexual remark. We directed the force to arrange a misconduct meeting for the officer, which will be held in due course.

During the investigation, we obtained accounts from both police officers and from the complainant. Recordings of the phone call between the complainant and PC Turner were downloaded and audits of his phone and MPS computer use were obtained. The actions of the officers were explored against College of Policing guidance and MPS policies and training.