Police officer in trouble over racist e-mail

Published on Friday 20 November 2009 10:14

A POLICE officer has been hauled in front of a misconduct hearing by force chiefs after being caught sending a racist e-mail joke to colleagues.

The Lothian officer was punished after the offensive message, which was sent on a police computer, was discovered by bosses.

In a separate misconduct hearing, another officer was disciplined after being accused of 11 counts of "bullying and oppressive conduct" against colleagues.

Police chiefs today said the officers concerned were "fined or given formal warnings", but would not give further details on the two cases.

It came as new figures revealed that 58 complaints against officers were upheld between April and September and resulted in misconduct procedures.

The complaints involved offences including "discriminatory behaviour", "harassment" and "antisocial behaviour".

Chief Constable David Strang, in a report to the police board, said that action had been taken after "a 'joke' with a racist overtone" was sent by an officer.

The force today said that its officers received diversity training covering issues including racism and bullying, and "inappropriate behaviour will not be tolerated, will be taken seriously and dealt with accordingly".

Jalal Chaudry, the Edinburgh and East of Scotland representative on the Muslim Council of Britain, said: "It's a serious matter if an officer is using a police computer to send a racist joke. I don't know how offensive the joke may have been but I agree that the police were right to take action of they considered serious enough."

He added: "But the ethnic minority community will see this was from an individual, not an institution. We have a very good relationship with Lothian and Borders Police and that won't be affected by this."

Jackie Muller, secretary of the Lothian and Borders Police branch of the Scottish Police Federation, said the sending of inappropriate e-mails on force computers was not a widespread problem, and added:

"The force and the federation take bullying and oppressive conduct very seriously."

Senior officers closed the file on 707 allegations between April and September, with 58 resulting in misconduct procedures, which usually result in warnings or officers ordered to undergo counselling. The number of fresh allegations against officers in those six months fell slightly against the same period last year, from 627 to 612.

The drop comes despite a rise in allegations in recent years, which police chiefs say was caused by changes in how complaints about the force were logged.

A police spokesman said: "All employees of Lothian and Borders Police are given diversity training which covers issues such as bullying, gender, sexuality, race and faith, disability and sectarianism. They know that inappropriate behaviour will not be tolerated, will be taken seriously and dealt with accordingly."