Phones of police officers ‘should be spot-checked’

POLICE officers should be subject to spot-checks of their phones to root out “revolting” messages in private groups, the chief inspector of constabulary has said.

Sir Tom Winsor, who leads Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services, said that random searches of officers’ private and work phones would serve as a deterrent to those making racist, sexist, homophobic and inappropriate comments.

In an interview with The Times, he said he supported the checks in the same way that police officers have to take mandatory drug tests.

“It seems to me that there is no strong case for saying there should not be random checks of their social media,” Sir Tom said.

“If they put stuff up on Facebook, a public site, it’s public. Whatsapp communications are encrypted end to end, but they are still stored on the receiving device and indeed the sending device. So they can be interrogated.”

He suggested officers would not be able to hide behind the defence of privacy, as it is “not an absolute right” under human rights law.

Sir Tom has also said that police professional standards units should be better staffed. In his annual state of policing report in July, he said forces should put their best investigators into the anti-corruption units, rather than keeping them in teams investigating rape, murder and terrorism cases.

His comments follow a number of high-profile offences by serving officers, including the kidnap, rape and murder of Sarah Everard by Metropolitan Police officer Wayne Couzens.

This week, two Met constables admitted in court that they photographed the bodies of two murdered sisters, and shared them with colleagues on Whatsapp.

‘There is no strong case against making random checks of their social media’

Sir Tom said that the treatment of Nicole Smallman and Bibaa Henry was a “violation of the obligation and confidence and trust which the public must have in the police, and in their professionalism, sensitivity, maturity and judgment”.

He added: “The police see people in their most desperate moments, in the worst times of their lives.

“Photographing the bodies of two people who’ve been murdered, it’s just unspeakably disgusting, revolting.”

He and his organisation are conducting inspections for the Home Secretary into the Met’s vetting and counter-corruption processes.