A City of London police constable has been given a final written warning over social media activity including taking and uploading a photo of an unknown woman at a children’s park.
A misconduct hearing held over two days in September found Andrew Jacks had breached standards of professional behaviour. The allegations related to posts he had published on his personal Twitter/X account between April 2012 and June 2022 which, it was argued, shared content that was homophobic, sexist and offensive to disabled people.
As well as the photo of the woman at the children’s park, whose face was not shown though who PC Jacks had described as having “the biggest fake boobs”, they included references to a friend as a “big fat poof”, a commentary on other passengers during a journey home in which a woman is called “an old slag” and a post stating “AIDS is a terrible thing. Especially Turkish AIDS”.
In one case, on August 15 2012, he posted: “Picked up stephen hawking from a date, his glasses were smashed, ankles twisted, knees grazed and eyes blackened turns out she stood him up.”
PC Jacks denied the majority of the allegations breached standards. It was also suggested that the content of the posts may not have been considered misconduct when they were published.
In a report published detailing the panel’s decision it is written that while there would have been some differences they would not have been as substantial as the officer indicated.
The report states: “Some of the terminology used by the officer was outdated even in 2012 and we noted that he was an officer of 12 years’ seniority who would have had training in diversity and inclusion (for example) when the Equality Act 2010 came into force and the Standards of Professional Behaviour came in to force in 2008. He accepted that he had training for the standards in 2008.”
The panel found that the officer’s posts would have harmed public confidence in policing and that he added to inappropriate content with posts of his own.
The passage of time since the posts were uploaded was noted, in particular the fact that over the relevant period the officer “behaved in an impressive manner in his post and engaged in initiatives and projects with people and groups with protected characteristics”.
While not all of the posts were deemed to have breached standards, in many instances the panel found this to be the case. As such a final written warning was deemed appropriate, to be made for five years.
Chief Superintendent and Head of Professionalism and Trust for the City of London Police, Sanjay Andersen, said: “This misconduct case is a direct result of our highly improved and continuous re-vetting processes in place for all serving police officers and police staff.
“The panel, which is convened in line with Police Regulations, found that in posting his tweets, regardless of being off duty and using a private account, this officer showed a lack of respect and courtesy toward parts of our community. He used offensive and unacceptable language of a misogynistic and homophobic nature.
“His conduct does not reflect the professional standards we expect, and he has been given a final written warning that will remain in place for a full five years.”
