Written warning for Metropolitan Police Service officer over inappropriate contact with a woman

20 Jan 2021 03:21 PM

A Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) officer has received a written warning at a misconduct meeting arranged by the force following an Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) investigation.

He was investigated following allegations that he had inappropriate contact with a woman he met during the course of his duties.

It was alleged he breached the standards of professional behaviour of authority, respect and courtesy; confidentiality; and conduct, by attempting to pursue inappropriate contact with a woman during a telephone call she made to the force to discuss a historic domestic incident. It was also alleged that the officer used his personal phone to contact the woman and transferred police information from police systems onto the device for a non-policing purpose.

We began our investigation in July 2020 and completed it October 2020. It found evidence of a case to answer for misconduct for the officer but the force disagreed with our findings, so we directed them to hold a misconduct meeting which took place on Thursday 14 January 2021.

IOPC Regional Director Sal Naseem yesterday said:

“The officer breached police professional standards of behaviour by inappropriately engaging with a member of the public, who he had met during the course of his official duties.

“This type of behaviour has the potential to undermine public confidence in the wider police service, and the standards of integrity and professionalism maintained by the vast majority of serving officers.

“As such, it was right that we directed that the conduct of this officer was examined by a chair.”