Cop gets away with using phone at wheel
Anger over claims of ‘insufficient evidence’
A PROBE into a cop filmed using a phone behind the wheel has been dropped after bosses failed to identify him.
Footage of the officer using his mobile while driving a force vehicle was recorded by a passerby in June last year.
The 21-second clip, obtained by the Record, shows the cop scrolling through his phone as he waits at traffic lights in Wishaw, Lanarkshire, before driving off.
The onlooker, who asked to remain anonymous, reported the incident to the Professional Standards Department of Police Scotland in July last year.
The matter was sent to the Crown Office’s Criminal Allegations Against Police Division (CAAPD).
But CAAPD have now dropped the case, claiming there was “insufficient evidence”.
In a letter to the onlooker, CAAPD also said time had run out, blaming a six-month time barrier in which the Crown Office has to raise criminal proceedings.
CAAPD added the matter “required extensive and ultimately unsuccessful inquires to establish the identity of the officer concerned” despite the number plate being displayed in the film.
The source who captured the incident said last night: “It looks again like one rule for the police and another for the public.”
The Professional Standards Department said it would now probe to see if “any officer has breached standards of professional behaviour”.