After her ex-boyfriend reportedly denounced her for allegedly sending racist WhatsApp messages, a police detective may be fired.
Det Sgt. Victoria Teagle, 38, is accused of calling an Asian-American coworker a “C***** b****.”
According to The Sun, her boyfriend, a police inspector, reportedly sent the communications to anti-corruption officials.
North London-based Det Sgt. Teagle, who is now on restricted duty, might be subject to disciplinary action.
Her status as the subject of a professional standards inquiry was disclosed by a statement from the Met Police.
The statement said, “The officer is claimed to have written a series of WhatsApp conversations to a colleague between January and April 2021 in which she frequently used an extremely offensive and discriminatory racial term in regard to another colleague.”
Sir Mark Rowley, the Met Commissioner, criticized the police recruiting process last month, claiming that “a substantial number” of the officers in his force are “not appropriately deployable” because of performance and health difficulties.
The paperwork surrounding the dismissal of officers, according to Sir Mark, who has been in charge of Britain’s largest police department since September, presents a “challenge” to his organization.
According to The Times, 500 Met police are on restricted duty or have their responsibilities stopped because they have been accused of severe wrongdoing, while 3,000 Met officers are not fully deployable owing to concerns about their performance, mental or physical health.
The Met now has more than 34,000 policemen on staff.
Sir Mark, 58, expressed sympathy for officers hurt while on duty and those dealing with mental health issues in an interview, but he criticized the recruiting process.
We can’t manage a workforce if such a high percentage is not effectively deployable, he added.
Many of these persons, maybe as a result of anxiety-related disorders, are unable to work shifts, work long hours each day, or have much interaction with the general population.
“There does come a point where it becomes hard for us in that it’s a significant number of individuals we can’t appropriately deploy,” the officer said.
This follows Baroness Louise Casey’s assessment from November of last year, which criticized the Met’s misconduct policies and said that hundreds of the force’s personnel should have been fired.
»Met Detective is sacked for ‘racist WhatsApp communications’ after lover notified superiors«