Sussex Police officer given warning: ‘excessive messages amounted to harassment’, says panel

Police said a misconduct hearing was held at Sussex Police headquarters on January 8 and 9 before a panel led by an Independent Legally Qualified Chair (LQC).

A Sussex Police spokesperson said: “LQCs are selected from a list of independent, legally-qualified persons to conduct police misconduct hearings, and are governed by Police Conduct Regulations. LQCs work with the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners and others to instil and embed as much transparency and proportionality into misconduct hearings.”

Police said the officer is referred to as ‘officer Z’ because they were granted anonymity by the LQC after making legal representations before the hearing.

A police spokesperson said: “It is the responsibility of the LQC alone to determine whether or not a hearing is partially or wholly held in public or in private, and whether any participant should be anonymised. Sussex Police are directed by and must abide by rulings made by the panel chair.”

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Sussex Police said the hearing was told the officer’s behaviour included contacting the woman, known as Female A, using various means, including email, WhatsApp, Facebook, text messaging and telephone. Police said the officer sent ‘excessive numbers of emails to Female A’ in November 2020 and continued to send them after they were informed the level of emails was not acceptable to Female A.

A police spokesperson said: “Many of the communications to the woman were made while the officer was on duty.”

Police said the panel found that these ‘excessive messages’ amounted to harassment and were a breach of the Standards of Professional Behaviour for Discreditable Conduct. Police said the officer was given a final written warning for two years, adding that the other allegations were found not proven by the panel.

Detective Superintendent Jon Robeson deputy head of force Professional Standards, said: “Police officers and staff must behave in a manner that does not discredit the police service or undermine public confidence, whether on or off duty. All staff are aware of the standards of professional behaviour and the force remains committed to holding officers to account where they fall below the high standards the public rightly expect.”