A group of six police officers shared vile racist and misogynist messages while they were on duty, an independent investigation has found.
Six former Civil Nuclear Constabulary (CNC) officers were found to be part of a group chat named “Band of Brothers” which included comments comparing one of the officer’s killing an animal to George Floyd’s death.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IPOC) analysed over 1,400 messages shared on the group – many while the officers involved were on duty – between June 2020 and February 2021.
More than 100 messages made reference to protected characteristics, including race, gender, religion and disability, the police watchdog said.
The WhatsApp messages included a video of an Arabic man parachuting which had been edited to infer he was responsible for a factory being blown up.
There were also a large number of messages which demeaned and objectified women, including one message which used “vulgar slang for female genitalia to refer to a group of women at the beach”.
The IOPC also found videos and images appearing to show a helicopter crash wreckage and an industrial accident where a man was pulled into a machine.
Hundreds of pornographic messages were also sent.
The IOPC ruled that the messages were discriminatory and grossly offensive and said the officers would have been dismissed had they not resigned.
It said that the officers had shared or failed to challenge racist and misogynistic messages.
The group chat had been discovered as part of an investigation into an unrelated matter and referred to the IOPC.
At a hearing this week a panel found former PCs Adam Rothery, Andrew Smith, Fraser Dove, Ryan Hancock and Stephen Moss would have been dismissed had they still been serving.
As former PC Benjamin Kirk was working for Avon and Somerset Police at the time the allegations came to light, they held a separate misconduct hearing for him in August.
The panel found he shared racist messages on the WhatsApp group and failed to challenge grossly offensive messages sent by others.
He would have been dismissed had he not already resigned and was barred from working in policing in future.
A seventh officer would also have faced disciplinary hearings but the timing of their resignation from the CNC, before the allegations against them came to light, meant this could not happen.
IOPC Regional Director Catherine Bates said: “Messages like the ones shared in this group have absolutely no place in civilised society.
“The appalling judgement shown by these officers, in sharing and failing to challenge such messages, is complete betrayal of the trust placed in the police by the public.
“But to stamp out this sort of behaviour fully, colleagues must be able to feel confident in calling it out, knowing they will be supported and action taken.
“We know this issue is not limited to any single force and leaders across policing must continue to work towards a culture of zero tolerance for these kinds of attitudes. Investigations like this one are an important step in the right direction.”
