Cops caught making ‘racist’ and ‘homophobic’ comments on secret cameras at police HQ
Sixteen officers and three civilian staff are under investigation 20 years after the murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence
SECRET cameras installed at a police HQ allegedly caught cops making racist and homophobic comments.
Sixteen officers as well as three civilian staff are under investigation following the Big Brother-style probe, one of the biggest of its kind ever carried out.
Five have been suspended and 11 more placed on restricted duties.
The shock news comes the day after the 20th anniversary of the landmark report into the police handling of the murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence.
It blasted London’s Metropolitan Police and ushered in sweeping changes across society.
Just last week Met commissioner Cressida Dick described the Lawrence case as “a stain on our country” but denied police were any longer “institutionally racist”.
The probe into claims of “inappropriate and prejudiced language and behaviours” at the Hampshire Police investigation centre in Basingstoke was launched a year ago.
It followed a complaint made within months of the open-plan offices being opened by former Home Secretary Amber Rudd in August 2017.
Around 350 officers are based there.
Hampshire Police called in the Independent Office for Police Conduct to supervise the investigation.
A source said: “The sheer length of time taken shows how important this is to the police.
“There is simply no room for any kind of prejudice in today’s police service.”
Another source said: “It was officer banter in the main, but clearly some of it has been deemed to be well over the top.
“This will send a message to every police station and building across the country.”
A spokesman for the force said: “Hampshire Constabulary takes any allegations of this nature very seriously.”
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