'Dismissive and uncaring' police officer sacked for gross misconduct
A “dismissive and uncaring” police officer who failed to investigate two assaults in Bristol and then lied to bosses to cover her tracks has been sacked without notice for gross misconduct, a tribunal panel ruled.
PC Rose Wilson, 30, discriminated against a female victim of male violence and a Black man who was attacked in his own home in front of his children by refusing to gather evidence and trying to close their cases without making any inquiries, it was decided.
She filed “false and misleading” reports on the Avon & Somerset Police database and did not upload her body-worn video despite orders from senior officers to do so because she knew they would reveal both victims wanted to press charges when she had said they didn’t. PC Wilson will also be barred from policing.
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The first incident in Horfield in July 2022 was a neighbourly altercation where a woman who had been assaulted by a man next door became frustrated that the officer was not listening to her.
Announcing the police misconduct panel’s ruling on Friday (September 27), after a four-day hearing at force headquarters in Portishead, Legally Qualified Chair (LQC) Jenny Tallentire said: “The officer adopted a dismissive tone towards the woman.
“Within a couple of minutes, the officer had rolled her eyes towards her colleague. The panel finds PC Wilson’s interruptions were almost always to undermine what the woman said or to criticise her, such as telling her she was rambling. She was not treated how a victim of crime should be treated.
“It was false and misleading to write an email to her supervising officer that the officer had given her the chance to tell them what happened but had told them to f*** off. The officer adopted a partisan approach to the incident from the outset. It was false and misleading to say there were no further lines of inquiry.
“There were multiple and obvious lines of inquiry which the officer did not follow. These false and misleading entries were made deliberately because it was the officer’s intention to shut down this investigation and she misled her supervisors. The officer decided that she didn’t want to undertake any investigative work in relation to this incident.”
Ms Tallentire said South Gloucestershire-based PC Wilson “lied” when she filed a report saying the woman later told her on the phone that she had been drinking that day with friends on her birthday.
She said the log entry “underplayed” the allegation from the woman that her male neighbour had pulled her arm behind her back.
The LQC said: “The panel found the officer didn’t want to investigate this incident. She then made false and misleading entries on records.”
The second incident, at a different address in Horfield, in September 2022, involved a man whose children had been bullied that day and his wife had taken a mobile phone from a child who had been filming it. The child's father went to the man's home to get it back and punched him in the face several times, leaving him bleeding.
The victim told the officer that he had been assaulted and wanted it investigated but she falsely told him the only offence committed was taking the child's phone. She misleadingly wrote in an incident report that no complaint was made by either party.
Ms Tallentire said: “The officer adopted a partisan approach to this incident and she decided at an early stage that she did not want to investigate the assault allegation.”
She said telling the man the only offence committed was the theft of a phone was “wholly wrong” when he had said he had been assaulted and his wife only took the phone to show police evidence of bullying of their children.
The LQC said: “It wasn’t correct to inform him that the taking of the mobile phone cancelled out the assault against him. She knew the victim wanted to report the assault but she took no basic steps to investigate.”
Ms Tallentire said that instead, PC Wilson tried to persuade him not to make a complaint by saying he had committed a crime by stealing the phone. She said the constable was dealing with a Black victim of crime at a time when race issues were at a height.
The panel ruled that the officer committed gross misconduct during both incidents and that the victims were “deeply upset by their treatment by this officer”.
Ms Tallentire said: “At the scene the officer’s behaviour amounted to an abuse of position.”
She said PC Wilson discriminated against both victims.
“Her actions have caused these people to lose trust in the police entirely,” she said.
“Public confidence in the police service is not maintained if an officer who has lied in an operational setting retains their job. Therefore the outcome must be dismissal without notice.”