Six police officers who shared “grossly offensive” messages in a WhatsApp group would not have stopped if they had not been uncovered, a disciplinary hearing found.
All of the officers had served with Cambridgeshire Police and were based in Peterborough, with five of them having already left the force before their misconduct hearing in August.
A separate hearing for the sixth officer, who was still a serving officer, was heard on Tuesday.
The actions of all six officers were found to amount to gross misconduct, with the serving officer dismissed without notice.
The five former officers would have been dismissed without notice if they were still serving with the force, their hearing concluded.
Cambridgeshire Police’s new Chief Constable, Simon Megicks, who began his new role on September 28, chaired Tuesday’s hearing for the serving officer, Inspector Simon Berrill.
Former chief constable Nick Dean chaired the August hearing for the five former officers, Sergeant Nathaniel Richards, Sergeant Kristian Lutz, Sergeant Connor Hall, Pc John House and Officer ‘A’.
Mr Dean wrote, in a hearing outcome for the August hearing, that the chat was called BDA, started in 2020 and was in existence for around two years.
He said that the WhatsApp group was “uncovered”, and there was a “download of one of the former officer’s mobile phones”.
Not all of the former officers were part of the group for its entirety, he said, but “each officer knew that they were part of the group and were explicit in creating its content to varying degrees”.
“The messages that are within the facts of this case were racist, misogynistic, inappropriate, abusive to colleagues and the public and overall, grossly offensive,” wrote Mr Dean.
“There is no doubting the former officers sent these messages and knew that they were of such content.”
He continued: “I have seen representations that this ‘private group chat’ was in some way ‘banter’ or ‘teasing’, I fundamentally fail to see this.
“I give little weight to the fact that personal mobile phones were used as opposed to work issued devices.
“The content of the chat should have never been placed on any device.”
He said it was “continued, regular behaviour that one can assume would not have stopped had this not been uncovered”.
Mr Dean wrote: “All the former officers were experienced and so knew full well the consequences of sending such messages and images.
“Indeed, there are comments in the chat that refer to changing the name of the group, pausing the content when they thought they were to be exposed to a senior officer and references to previous similar cases that resulted in misconduct.”
In the hearing outcome for Insp Berrill, Mr Megicks said it was “apparent” through the posts that Insp Berrill “became ever more aware of the risks he was taking and of the inappropriate nature of the activity he and his colleagues were engaged in”.
The officers also made insulting remarks about colleagues, shared police data on a non-approved platform without a policing purpose and failed to challenge or report improper conduct, Cambridgeshire Police said.
In a statement after both accelerated hearings had concluded, Mr Megicks said: “I stand firmly behind the outcome of both hearings.
“They send a clear and consistent message: discriminatory behaviour, whether on or off duty, will not be tolerated.
“We will take action, and we will continue to uphold the values our communities expect and deserve.”
