6 Police officials warned over racist facebook post

One police officer has been issued with a serious written admonition and five other were warned verbally for inappropriate conduct in an unofficial and closed Facebook group involving members of the police force.

The warnings were issued following the National Police Board investigation which began due to articles published on the Internet publication, Long Play, last summer, said a press release.

According to the articles, the group was engaged in an inappropriate and racist discussion, in which public servants in the service of the police also participated.

The police units identified 50 public servants working for the police from the material made available to them.

Identification was made more challenging by the fact that, in the screenshots, some of the inappropriate comments where masked in a way that prevented the identification of those behind them.

The police units did not view all of the written comments by the aforementioned 50 police officers as inappropriate, but some could be regarded as covered by public servants’ freedom of expression, even when worthy of criticism.

Following the publication of the articles, the National Police Board submitted a request for investigation to the Office of the Prosecutor General, enquiring whether there were grounds for suspecting that public servants employed by the police had committed offences in relation to the inappropriate discussions.

The Office of the Prosecutor General concluded that there was no ground for suspecting that an offence have been committed, but left a more detailed investigation and possible disciplinary action to the National Police Board.

Following this, the National Police Board began an administrative investigation into the matter. A large number of screenshots of the group discussions served as the basis of the investigation.