A female firearms officer was victimised by Police Scotland colleagues in a “horrific” workplace culture condemned as an “absolute boys’ club”, an employment tribunal has found.
The damning judgment accepted evidence of a sexist culture in the armed response vehicles unit in the east of Scotland, after the former officer Rhona Malone brought the tribunal alleging sex discrimination and victimisation.
Malone’s solicitor, Margaret Gribbon, said: “The employment tribunal upheld my client’s claims that Police Scotland victimised her over a lengthy period after she complained about an inspector’s overtly sexist email. The employment tribunal’s findings lay bare the misogynistic attitudes and culture within armed policing and the hostile treatment police officers face when they try to call it out.”
Following the judgment, Malone – who claimed Police Scotland had offered her a payout if she signed a non-disclosure agreement – said she was “absolutely delighted at finally obtaining justice”.
The tribunal also accepted evidence that Malone’s senior officer, Insp Keith Warhurst, copied her in on an email in January 2018 saying two female firearms officers should not be deployed together when there were sufficient male staff on duty, referring to “the obvious differences in physical capacity” and suggesting this made “more sense from a search, balance of testosterone perspective”.
But the tribunal found that Warhurst’s instruction was not carried out, with staff told it did not represent the views of senior management and, as a result of this it dismissed Malone’s direct discrimination claim.
Describing Malone as an “entirely credible and reliable witness”, the tribunal found that Warhurst posted images of topless women to a WhatsApp group of male sergeants, that two other female officers left the division because they “felt their sex was always going to be a barrier to promotion”, and that when one woman asked if female firearms officers could wear trousers and a top rather than a one-piece, so that it would be easier to go to the toilet, the chief firearms instructor swore at her.
Malone told the Guardian that since taking her case she had been approached by many other female officers who had faced similar experiences. “The unconscious bias in Police Scotland is so deep that they don’t even realise. Misogynist banter is nurtured and no one steps in to say this is wrong. So that poisonous culture is just going to grow.”
She said Police Scotland management had a duty to hold other senior officers to account. “They are promoting the wrong people, and those who speak up are made to look like they are the problem.”
Last November a review of Scotland’s widely criticised police complaints system by Dame Elish Angiolini, a former lord advocate, heard “very worrying evidence” of discrimination against female and LGBTQ+ officers, and the mistreatment of black and minority ethnic police officers, concluding that a further, fundamental review of equalities within the force was needed.
Police Scotland has been approached for comment.
