Police chief loses fight over alleged offensive tweet disciplinary
The head of the Scottish Police Federation has lost a legal battle at Scotland’s highest civil court to stop disciplinary proceedings against him over an allegedly offensive tweet.
Calum Steele wanted a judge at the Court of Session to order Police Scotland from stop investigating him over a message he posted on Twitter.
Bosses at the force believe he may have brought the force into disrepute over a message he sent over the social media network on November 11 2019.
Mr Steele, the General Secretary of the Scottish Police Federation, was commenting on a decision not to prosecute officers over their role in the death of Sheku Bayoh in May 2015.
Mr Bayoh died while in police custody. The 31-yearold father-of-two lost his life in 2015 after being restrained by police.
Mr Steele had become involved in an exchange with
Aamer Anwar, the solicitor acting for Mr Bayoh’s family. The relatives believe their loved one died because the officers who arrested him allegedly broke the law. Mr Steele stated that there wasn’t enough evidence to prosecute his colleagues and the decision not to prosecute was justified.
But he later posted a GIF - an image - from the 2004 comedy Napoleon Dynamite which tells of a socially awkward teenager of the same name growing up in America.
The GIF showed Napoleon’s brother Kip ‘lightly hitting’ him and the lead character then falling over. People believed Mr Steele’s tweet was distasteful and trivialised the circumstances surrounding Mr Bayoh’s death.
Bosses at Police Scotland believe the Tweet may have breached their guidelines on what constitutes acceptable behaviour for a police officer on social media.
This prompted them to disciplinary proceedings against Mr Steele. Senior officers thought the Tweet could undermine the public’s confidence in the police .
This prompted to Mr Steele to instruct lawyers to go to the Court of Session. His lawyers arguedthathisrightsunderarticle 10 of the European Conventiononhumanrights-theright to freedom of expression - were being breached by the threat of disciplinary action. However, judge Lord Fairley rejected the arguments and said the police were entitled to launch disciplinary proceedings.