TWO former West Midlands Police officers - father and daughter - have been found to have been sharing “highly derogatory and offensive” messages about crime victims.
A misconduct hearing found that PC Craig Napier and PC Annie Napier exchanged “vile” WhatsApp messages between April 2020 and May 2021, that were also derogatory towards members of the public and some of their colleagues.
In one message, PC Craig Napier used an offensive word to refer to someone with Down Syndrome and in another, his daughter used a racist slur to describe a member of mental health staff.
The pair also shared derogatory messages about victims of crime, including one incident that occurred on October 26, 2020, where they appeared to mock a potential murder victim.
PC Annie Napier wrote “Is she mangled?” to which her dad replied, “She’s face down so can’t see a lot, just blood round her head.”
She replied with “Oooo! You think it's murder?” with PC Napier then saying, “Who knows and dares to dream.”
In another incident on June 7, 2020, the pair shared messages degrading protestors who were blocking a road, with PC Annie Napier saying to her dad “drive over them xxx”.
The hearing, which took place on November 6, 2024, found both former officers guilty of gross misconduct for sharing messages that were discriminatory on the grounds of “disability, race, nationality, gender and sexual orientation.”
The pair resigned from West Midlands Police earlier this year but would have been dismissed had they still been with the force.
A report published after the hearing referred to the messages as “repulsive” and said neither dad nor daughter offered an apology for their actions.
It also found PC Craig Napier to be the instigator of the messaging but said his daughter failed to challenge the content of the messages and was “equally as offensive.”
In the report, Chief Constable Guildford, who chaired the hearing, said: “The former officer’s conduct demonstrated a complete lack of integrity, care for those [they] worked with or the public [they] served.
“[Their] conduct demonstrated no respect for others, no respect for equality or diversity, it lacked courtesy and basic common human decency.”
He added: “The breaches I have found today grossly undermine trust and confidence in my view as they are highly impactive upon the public perception of officers respecting the public they serve, their colleagues, partner organisation staff and not to hold hostile and discriminatory view against people with protected characteristics.”
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