Indian-origin police officer dismissed from Scotland Yard along with two others

PC Sukhdev Jeer and two other officers were dismissed from the Scotland Yard following allegations of offensive behaviour

Three officers, including an Indian-origin officer, have been dismissed from the Scotland Yard without notice as a result of their ‘highly offensive and discriminatory behaviour’. This has come after a professional standards investigation, which involved examining a year’s worth of social media messages, found the three responsible.

A misconduct hearing concluded that Police Constable (PC) Sukhdev Jeer and PC Paul Hefford, who worked for the Forensic Services in the Metropolitan Police, exchanged offensive messages.

The messages in question were shared among a group of officers on a WhatsApp group in 2018. Commander Jon Savell, Professional Standards said, “I hardly need to say it is completely unacceptable for anyone, let alone a police officer, to behave in such a manner. The actions of these three are inexcusable.”

Many racist posts were also found during the investigation, including reportedly one containing a racist slur about Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, shortly before her marriage to Prince Harry in 2018.

“The whole of the Met is focused on rooting out anyone who displays this type of behaviour and lets down the Met and the public we serve. Behaviour like this will absolutely not be tolerated and we are driving that message home to our officers and staff at every opportunity”, Commander Savell added.

All three officers faced an allegation of gross misconduct which mentioned that between December 2017 and December 2018, they were part of a WhatsApp group on their private phones. On the group, they exchanged ‘content that was discriminatory on the grounds of sex, race, religion, sexual orientation and disability, while working at Central East Command Unit’.

Chief Superintendent Marcus Barnett, who leads the Central East division of the Met Police said, “This repulsive behaviour understandably damages that trust and I want to apologise to every single member of the public we serve in this area”.

“These officers have, rightly, been sacked. I do not want any officer who would engage in this sort of behaviour anywhere near your community. I will be personally emailing everyone who works at Central East to reinforce the message that words matter, respect matters, and every time someone sends this sort of message they cause real hurt”, he added.

PCs Jeer and Hefford will be added to the Barred List held by the College of Policing which prevents them from being employed by police, local policing bodies (PCCs), the Independent Office for Police Conduct or Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services.

The messages came under the scanner when an unrelated criminal investigation on another former officer, Richard Hammond’s phone was carried out. He was dismissed without notice in October 2021 after being convicted for ‘perverting the course of justice’.

The Met Police said that it was “working hard to rebuild trust in the country’s largest police force and recognise we have a lot to do.”