West Yorkshire Police: Pudsey officers sacked over offensive whatsapp mesages

Eight West Yorkshire Police officers have been barred from policing over a WhatsApp group featuring routine misogyny and casual racism.

The Pudsey-based officers were found guilty of gross misconduct over derogatory, offensive and discriminatory messages posted in the group between August 2020 and November 2021.

The hearing panel, chaired by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), found that all five serving officers should be dismissed and that the three officers who resigned while under investigation would have been dismissed if still serving.

A panel heard how the officers shared photographs of death scenes, car crashes, missing people and detainees and that the group was characterised by "mean-spirited and bullying remarks about colleagues and members of the public".

The officers that have been barred are PC Luke Riddett, Ex-PC Tom Harrison, PS Mark Otter, PC Javaid Habebb, Ex-PC Matthew Harrison, PC Dominique Hawkins, Ex-PC Lee Hillyard and PC X (who is subject of an anonymity order).

All eight will now be added to the College of Policing’s Barred List preventing them from gaining any further employment in policing.

The disciplinary panel found a total of 67 allegations proven at the level of gross misconduct, a further 38 proven at the level of misconduct and 20 allegations were found not proven.

Within the group PC Luke Riddett shared a photograph of a bearded Asian detainee with the caption “if you had to draw a terrorist…”

PC Tom Harrison made a comment considered offensive to the travelling community, in which he suggested he would “make a good pikey”. He followed this up with a reference to stealing cars “in my spare time”.

PC Dominique Hawkins posted an image from the scene of a sudden death, after the body had been removed, to which another officer responded: “Delicious”.

One officer posted about a woman “on a bridge”, adding “jump jump jump jump”. He separately posted about the same woman, describing her as “feral” and “covered in blood from smashing her head off my boot”.

PC Riddett made a number of inappropriate, sexualised comments about female colleagues.

Detective Chief Superintendent Tanya Wilkins, Head of West Yorkshire Police’s Professional Standards Directorate, said: “This misconduct hearing looked not only at the actions of this group but also their inaction. The lack of challenge and complicity of a supervisor being involved in these conversations has allowed a culture of routine misogyny, casual racism and bullying to develop within this team.

“We make clear to all employees of West Yorkshire Police the standards we expect of them both on and off duty and have a specific policy in place around the use of social media, which includes WhatsApp. The messages that were looked at as part of this investigation were mean-spirited and not representative of the inclusive culture we seek to foster in West Yorkshire Police.

The IOPC found that some of the officers interviewed as part of the investigation said the use of WhatsApp, while against force policy, was encouraged by some sergeants.

They also added that several officers said they used “dark humour” as a way to deal with difficult situations and some said this was actively encouraged during their initial training.

Following the investigation West Yorkshire Police said it is rolling out new handheld devices to officers, which would include an alternative app allowing officers to share messages instantly among teams, without needing to use their personal devices.

The force also says it has taken steps to address the issues identified including reviewing training and policies around social media use, with a focus on workplace behaviour and culture.

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