Police Officer Imitates Muslim Woman's Accent While She Reports Hate Crime

LONDON (IQNA) – A former policeman who mocked the accent of a Muslim woman reporting a hate crime has been found guilty of gross misconduct and would have been dismissed from the force if he had not already resigned.

Former PC Patrick Harrison, who worked for the West Yorkshire Police, imitated the Indian accent of the caller, identified only as SA, over the phone without knowing she was still on the line. He repeated some of the phrases she had used while reporting a "hate-related assault" in November last year.

The woman, who heard the officer's comments, reported him to Tell MAMA, a national project that records anti-Muslim incidents in the UK. A police misconduct panel ruled that the ex-officer's discriminatory actions "dehumanised" the caller and breached the standards of professional conduct and amounted to gross misconduct, Wales Online reported on Sunday.

The panel heard that PC Harrison had asked the woman for more details as to why she considered the incident a hate crime. He admitted his "unacceptable and inexcusable" behaviour and accepted that it was "conscious discrimination". He resigned from the force last month, before the panel's judgement.

However, panel chair Katherine Wood said that if he had not resigned, PC Harrison would have been dismissed from the force for his actions, which had caused "psychological distress" to SA and had resulted in her "loss of trust and confidence" in the police.

"We accept that the former officer did not know that SA could hear what he was saying, it was therefore not targeted," she said. "We find that had he thought about it, he could reasonably have foreseen the risk of harm from his actions. It was conscious discrimination, which had the consequence of excluding and dehumanising SA, diminishing her and the complaint that she was making."

The panel heard that PC Harrison was remorseful for his actions and had even offered to meet with the caller to apologise in person. But the panel also heard that his actions had raised issues of "significant national concern" about racism and Islamophobia within the police.

"Racism and Islamophobia within the police are issues of significant national concern. Had the former officer not already tendered his resignation, [the panel] would have recommended his immediate dismissal from the service," Miss Wood said.

"The behaviour of the former officer is so serious and the impact that it has had on SA and the confidence of the public as a whole is such that no lesser sanction would be justified."

Source: Agencies