Police sergeant demoted over racist WhatsApp messages

Daniel Hebborn will remain on frontline duties after his behaviour was found to amount to gross misconduct

A Surrey Police sergeant who shared racist WhatsApp messages and a video of a man attempting to take his own life has been stripped of his rank, but will remain on frontline duties.

Daniel Hebborn admitted sending messages to a group of friends between August 2019 and March 2020, including forwarding the video, which showed a male with "devastating injuries", the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

During a two-day police misconduct hearing in September, the panel found his behaviour had the "obvious potential to cause serious harm" to Surrey Police's reputation.

It found Mr Hebborn's actions amounted to gross misconduct and were "arguably so serious to justify dismissal", although instead his rank was reduced to police constable.

The six messages included an image which the panel deemed an "inappropriate racist joke" showing a photo of an elderly black man with his arm around the shoulders of an elderly white man, with the accompanying title "is this a mugging?".

The officer was found to have made "racist inappropriate" jokes and comments

Mr Hebborn continued to serve as a sergeant with Surrey Police in the years between sending the messages and the conduct hearing.

The report, published on Thursday, said there was "some concern that the ‘banter’ contained in the messages" may have extended into his position as a sergeant, based on comments made in his own submitted character references.

In a character reference, an inspector said: "Dan's sense of humour is best described as pushing boundaries that are deliberately controversial but always intended as a joke".

'Entirely unacceptable'

The panel accepted that the conduct was "contained" to the period of time the messages were sent in and the officer has "expressed regret and shame".

The report said the panel decided to demote Mr Hebborn because "a clear message had to be given that... such conduct was not tolerated".

It said action had to be taken in order to maintain public confidence and respect especially when it came to the police “tackling issues of racism within their forces".

Head of professional standards, Ch Supt Andy Rundle, said the panel determined that reducing his rank was appropriate due to the "historic, non-work related nature" of the messages and his previous record of service.

Mr Rundle said the force was "committed" to being an anti-racist organisation, "where all forms of discrimination are entirely unacceptable".