Six Greater Manchester police officers shared “abhorrent” racist, ableist and other offensive messages in a WhatsApp group, an investigation by the police watchdog has found.
Examples included racist comments about people attending Eid celebrations in Manchester, ableist comments about people with autism, and shared photos of medication that appeared to be steroids.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct found that the six officers had committed misconduct or gross misconduct. The messages came to light as part of evidence gathered for a separate IOPC investigation into whether an officer, PC Aaron Jones, had supplied steroids to others.
As part of the previous investigation, Jones’s personal mobile phone was examined. This led to the identification of a WhatsApp group called “The Dispensables”, of which the six officers were members.
The group’s messages included references to drug use, and derogatory comments, which did not appear to be challenged by any of the officers.
The IOPC regional director for the north-west, Catherine Bates, said: “The messages in this WhatsApp group were inexcusable and abhorrent. Messages sent via WhatsApp and on any form of social media cannot be a hiding place for officers with these types of views.
“Behaviour of this nature seriously undermines public confidence in policing. It is part of our role, and for police forces themselves, to ensure that it is rooted out and those responsible are held to account for their actions.
“The outcome sends a clear message that the use and failure to challenge offensive language is wholly unacceptable.”
An independently chaired panel on Wednesday found gross misconduct proven against PC Rebekah Kelly. The former PCs Ashley Feest and Graham Atkinson admitted breaching the standards of behaviour, also at the level of gross misconduct.
The standards breached by Kelly were “discreditable conduct and challenging and reporting improper conduct”, the IOPC said. The standards breached by Feest and Atkinson were “respect and courtesy, equality and diversity, discreditable conduct and challenging and reporting improper conduct”.
The panel ruled that Feest would have been dismissed without notice had he not already resigned, and Kelly was dismissed without notice. They will both be added to the College of Policing’s barred list, which prohibits them from working within policing. Atkinson received a final written warning.
The original IOPC investigation into Jones looked at allegations he had offered to supply steroids in January 2019. He was dismissed in December last year after a misconduct hearing organised by the force.
Before that, Jones was sentenced last June to a 12-month community order and 80 hours of unpaid work after admitting two counts of offering to supply class C drugs.
As part of the IOPC investigation into the WhatsApp messages, two other officers were found to have a case to answer for misconduct and the force arranged misconduct meetings in August 2022.
One was found to have breached the standards of professional behaviour in relation to authority, respect and courtesy; conduct; equality and diversity; and challenging and reporting improper conduct. They were given a written warning. The other officer was found to have failed to challenge or report improper conduct and received management advice.
