Thames Valley Police: Ex-PC's gross misconduct for flirtatious texts

The panel found the former police officer, who cannot be referred to by name, was guilty of gross misconduct

A former police officer would have been sacked for engaging in a "flirtatious" text message chat with a member of the public.

The ex-Thames Valley Police (TVP) officer, who worked in Berkshire, denied gross misconduct but was found to have committed it by a panel.

He sent 143 text messages to the woman between March and April 2021.

Allegations he had sex with a colleague while on duty and used TVP's IT system inappropriately were found not proven.

A misconduct panel found the former probationary officer, referred to as PC X, had tried to conceal text messages on his work phone between him and the woman by deleting them.

He had earlier met the woman on a call-out and had left his phone number for her daughter to contact him. The woman subsequently sent him 166 messages.

The panel found accessing the woman's details on TVP's Niche IT system was legitimate in the course of PC X doing his job.

His colleague, referred to as E, said they had sex after a shift in March 2021 but not in June of that year as TVP had alleged.

E said PC X had visited her house to complete computer-based tutorials - including one on "marauding terrorist attacks" - and had then confided in her about problems he was having.

The panel said sexually explicit text messages they had shared earlier did not prove that they had sex later.

PC X can appeal the panel's verdict.