Sheffield police officer's appeal continues after receiving final written warning over racial slur
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PC David Warwick was the subject of a misconduct hearing last month over claims he used the term P*** in conversation with Temporary Police Sergeant Baldeesh Boora-Brown, who is of British-Indian heritage, during an incident in July 2020.
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He denied the allegation but the case against him was proven, with his actions deemed to have amounted to gross misconduct and he was served with a final written warning.
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Hide AdHe was also the subject of disciplinary proceedings over claims he made a joke about eating curry when discussing the age of a 105-year-old Asian man with another colleague on the same day.
PC Warwick admitted saying “maybe I should start eating curry” in jest but denied that it was a racist comment or intended
to be derogatory or racially offensive. The misconduct panel agreed.
A misconduct panel report on the outcome of the two-day hearing states the panel had considered ‘character evidence’ from a number of PC Warwick’s colleagues, the majority of which were from officers of a South Asian and Indian/Pakistani heritage.
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Hide AdIt reads: “The statements confirm that fellow officers have never heard PC Warwick use any racist or racially derogatory language or act with prejudice; and those officers who supervised him say that they have never heard reports of him doing so.
“He is described as someone who deals with people respectfully and with courtesy. We have no hesitation in finding that PC Warwick is not someone who ordinarily uses racist or derogatory language in his working or private life or displays any racial prejudice. However we find that in the context of the conversation that he had with TPS Boora-Brown, where she initiated what was intended as a jocular exchange, that the officer did use a racial slur but that he had not intended it to be
malicious.
“We find that the officer was attempting to make a joke...but unfortunately the joke badly misfires.”
The panel deemed the use of the P word as “highly offensive” and that “such behaviour discredits the police service and undermines public confidence in it”.