Day 1 South Wales Police Gross Misconduct Hearing. Mixed emotions with this. Colin Banham was pretty awesome in action and ripped apart the opening underhand tactics being employed by PSD! Can you even begin to imagine having a hearing in relation to use of force on a prisoner in a crowded Custody Suite and apparently the PSD did not want to call the other Officers, despite alleging their accounts were inaccurate 🤔 Second tactic, was to try and ambush the defence and Panel with the submission of a heavily edited CCTV clip, highlighting the points they wanted to put before the Panel and greyed out all the other info 🤬 Fortunately the Panel saw through this disgraceful attempt and rejected both requests. Now the mixed emotion bit. Whilst it is farcical that this matter has even made the threshold for GM and lasted over 2 years, what was most upsetting was seeing the level of vindictiveness displayed by an officer intent on destroying another colleagues career. Despite having been taken to Employment Tribunal and losing, the Senior Officer continued to target the Officer and abused their position of a AA in the PSD. Whilst it is standard procedure to declare a conflict of interest when ‘independently’ assessing a conduct allegation, this Officer took the opportunity to seek retribution for the previous Employment Tribunal ruling. Showing a total disregard for Police Conduct Regulations, they colluded with the Investigating Officer and influenced the Initial Assessment. This included inserting the words ‘excessive force’ which had not been used at any point in the statement from the Inspector who forwarded the initial conduct allegation. Also breaching policy by viewing additional BWV footage and alleging the Officer used a certain swear word and slapped the Prisoner in the face! The final bit of corruption, was to request an independent Peer Review of the investigation from a Force where their partner works. The review was carried out on a personal mobile phone call and no paperwork or CCTV was viewed by the ‘independent’ Police Officer 🤔 Unsurprisingly, the investigation was deemed appropriate. This is just Day 1. What a sad state of affairs British Policing is in and it is no wonder Forces like the Met had a net gain of just 86 Officers in 2024.
Steve Thornton I wonder what the press might think of this.
Unbelievable! I would be following up with a criminal complaint for misconduct in public office.
Good luck hope you get the right outcome
Those slimy “corrupt officers” That’s not my real words. You can work it out in your head.
I’m really hoping this goes to plan and we can prove to people just what’s going wrong
Sadly not surprised. My team and myself were subjected to the most appalling vindictive and dishonest criminal behaviour by the Met’s Anti-Corruption Command, back in 2007-2010. They are the most corrupt department in policing. I was very fortunate to have had the most professional and honest officers working for me and everything done was beyond reproach. The Met ended up making a formal Public apology and paying a six figure sum. We later established that the man leading the ‘fatally flawed’ investigation was himself corrupt and working for organised crime. He was involved in the Murder of a young man. The ACC and senior Met officers have covered up the truth around this Murder for years.
The corrupt practices within PSD are palpable. Who is policing the PSD?
I think we can only be grateful for Trojan Wellbeing and the work they do. To hear that a “senior” Officer has been so corrupt is deplorable but not out the status quo sadly. I wish the officer subject to this miscarriage well, I wish the full extent right of the justice system for the “independent” officer and their cronies. Corruption and malfeasance abound, what a terrible ad for policing. Let’s see if the exec teams have the fortitude to do the right thing.
Retired police officer of 31yrs; Director of The Law & Order Foundation; Media commentator on policing law & order specialising on the effects of Gun & Knife Crime & the effects of Homicide!
7moGood luck matey; I’m in touch with quite a few serving officers once strong now Broken two seriously contemplated suicide; I went to a MET Tribunal recently of two MET Officers & saw first hand how just doing your job can land you in big shite! They had stopped a 14yr Black suspect after the report of a Knife point robbery in a high robbery area of Croydon! I sat & listened to the evidence & neither had done anything wrong one swear word used having been on a robbery squad myself for 6yrs we too used swear words at times called control & containment! Over 2yrs they waited one Resigned the stress was too much the other strong confident with an outstanding record saved a man from suicide disarmed a suspect with a loaded gun & received a Mayors commendation left Briken on anti depressants a shadow of himself! A Misconduct & Not MC proven! He will never be the same again will he stay in the job? Who knows! The CPS & IOPC are not fit for purpose they destroy many good officers lives & careers & PSD often treat officers with contempt too as tho they are second class citizens! I could post 100’s of paragraphs here detailing how dreadful many police officers are treated under investigation but best I don’t! Good luck at the hearing