PC asked for black mannequin to stamp on - hearing

Adam Brown made the racist remark at West Yorkshire Police's Carr Gate complex, in Wakefield, in 2022

A trainee police officer asked to be passed a mannequin of a black child so he could “stamp on its head”, a misconduct hearing heard.

Adam Brown made the comment during a first aid training session just weeks into his career at West Yorkshire Police, in September 2022.

Mr Brown, who denied making the comment but did not attend the misconduct proceedings, resigned from the force in March 2023.

But a panel found the allegation proven and concluded he would have been sacked had he still been employed.

Six eyewitnesses, all of them officers training with Mr Brown at the time, testified that he'd made the slur during a session at the police's Carr Gate complex in Wakefield.

The hearing was told that as a series of dolls were brought out for a CPR exercise, Brown said loudly: "Can I have the black one so I can stamp on its head?"

'Quite cheerful'

He was immediately challenged by some of the officers around him, including PC William Gudgeon, who was next to him.

PC Gudgeon told the hearing: “I said to him, 'you shouldn't say that. That's not right'.

"When he initially said it, he came across as if he was telling a joke. He was quite cheerful.

"When I challenged him he slumped back in his chair and he didn’t seem very happy.”

'Undermine public confidence'

PC Gudgeon said he later removed Mr Brown’s number from his phonebook and deleted him from his social media channels, because he “didn’t want to be associated with anybody who thinks it's acceptable to say things like that".

Other officers described the comment as "horrifying" and "disgusting".

The hearing was told that in interviews Mr Brown denied making the comment and insisted he'd suggested giving the mannequin CPR with his legs because "it was smaller".

He agreed that the remark he was accused of making was racist.

Presenting the case against Mr Brown for the policing authority, Ian Mullarkey said that while it was a "poor attempt at humour", the incident was made more serious by general public concern about institutional racism in policing.

Finding Mr Brown guilty of gross misconduct in his absence, panel chair Eileen Herlihy said: "He clearly used racist language advocating violence, which had the potential to cause serious harm to those who heard it and the potential to undermine public confidence in the police."

Concluding the hearing, Ms Herlihy also praised the eyewitnesses who reported Mr Brown to their superiors for their "good moral courage and judgement".