Ex-West Midlands Police officer banned after racist comments - The Solihull Observer

Ex-West Midlands Police officer banned after racist comments

Solihull Editorial 22nd Jun, 2022   0

A FORMER West Midlands Police officer has been barred from policing over racist comments made at a Christmas party.

PC Joe Courtney made inappropriate, discriminatory and racist comments towards a female colleague whilst both were off duty last December.

The matter was subject to a criminal investigation which resulted in Courtney being charged with two counts of committing a racially aggravated public order offence.

At Nottingham Magistrates Court in April he admitted the offences and was fined £200 and ordered to pay £200 compensation to the victim.




A misconduct hearing, chaired by Chief Constable, Sir David Thompson, found the former officer to have breached the standards of professional behaviour relating to equality and diversity and discreditable conduct.

West Midlands Police said he would have been sacked from the force had he not already resigned earlier this month and Courtney has been placed on the barred list which prevents him from ever working for the police again.


Sir David, who is the race inclusion and heritage lead at the National Police Chiefs Council, said after the hearing: “In order to improve confidence across all communities, and particularly to make policing a career choice for our under-represented groups, we must demonstrate we are committed to building an anti-racist police service.

“The behaviour of this officer is wholly unacceptable. It matters not that the words used came while he was off-duty.

“There is no place in policing for anyone prepared to use discriminatory language or behaviour.

“I know the language the victim, one of our own officers, was subjected to left her very upset and shocked; we continue to offer her our support.

“I hope the action we’ve taken, finding a case of gross misconduct and showing he would have been dismissed, helps with her recovery and demonstrates we won’t tolerate this type of behaviour. There simply is no excuse.”

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