Three police officers at Hampshire Constabulary’s serious organised crime unit (Socu) have been sacked for gross misconduct after their ‘lads’ pad’ was secretly bugged following concerns raised by a whistleblower. Personnel Today report that during the misconduct hearing, it was heard a “toxic, abhorrent culture” developed with officers using offensive terms for women, black people, immigrants, disabled, gay and transgender people and foreign nationals. Hampshire Constabulary chief constable said that the catalogue of unacceptable language and commentary had rightly shocked those on the disciplinary panel and understandably left people with many questions about how this has been allowed to happen. She added that policing is built upon the values of professionalism, compassion, courage and integrity and these officers had failed to deliver on the promise they made to uphold fundamental human rights and accord equal respect to all people, the oath they declared when they took the office of constable.
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