Police sergeant is demoted over his women and lesbian remarks

OFFICER ESCAPES BEING SACKED FOR GROSS MISCONDUCT

A DERBYSHIRE police officer who made inappropriate comments about women and lesbians has been demoted.

Sergeant Darran Clarke, a police officer for 20 years, had been accused of making insulting comments as part of a course of conduct in which he “behaved inappropriately towards colleagues who were under his supervision”.

The conclusion for the hearing was held at Derbyshire police headquarters at Ripley yesterday, where the panel decided Sgt Clarke’s behaviour was serious enough to be classed as gross misconduct. But it stopped short of sacking him, instead deciding to impose a reduction in rank on the veteran of the force, making him a constable once again.

Colleagues complained about the Chesterfield-based officer’s conduct after he was heard allegedly saying there were “too many women in the office” and “Why do I have to work in an office full of lesbians?”

He was also accused of tapping a female colleague on the chest and saying she was a “good girl”, before inviting her to a male locker room. The tapping was not deemed to be sexual.

The police misconduct hearing was held over the course of several days this week, during which Clarke defended himself, saying he felt a lack of male officers impacted on his team’s success as he felt female officers performed fewer “stop-searches”.

He denied touching the female officer on the chest and denied making the comment about lesbians, saying “I would never use the word ‘lesbian.’ I thought it (the word lesbian) was offensive”.

At a previous hearing Oliver Thorne, presenting the case for Derbyshire police, put it to Sgt Clarke: “It’s not training that you need, but to think before you speak.”

Sgt Clarke replied: “There’s some truth in that, yes.”

The officer was not present at the hearing yesterday, with his legal representative saying the officer was displaying Covid symptoms and was isolating.

In his absence, Jayne Salt, chair of the panel, said it determined he had made the alleged remarks and that he should have recognised his behaviour was improper.

She added that Sgt Clarke did not have racist, misogynistic or homophobic views, and it was “speaking before thinking and bad jokes” that had taken place.

Ms Salt said the panel had taken into account the multiple positive character references provided by colleagues of Sgt Clarke, as well as representations from his legal representative saying that the complainants themselves did not want him to lose his job. She added that to “lose him from policing would not be in the public interest”.

“The panel concluded that a reduction in rank is the appropriate and proportional outcome,” she said.