London police officer barred from serving again after taking video of crime scene and sharing it

A former City of London Police officer has been banned from serving again after sharing video evidence from a crime scene on a social messaging platform. Thomas Hawkes accessed a City of London Police terminal on January 28 last year and recorded the footage using his personal mobile phone.

The video showed a suspected offence being committed followed by a man being detained by police. Superintendent Carly Humphreys, in charge of Professional Standards at the force, described Mr Hawkes' actions as a 'wholly unacceptable compromise of the integrity of policing'.

A misconduct hearing was held by the City of London Police on November 5 into an allegation Mr Hawkes had breached the standards of professional behaviour. The hearing, chaired by Commissioner Peter O'Doherty, found that Mr Hawkes' actions amounted to gross misconduct and that, if he were still serving, he would have been dismissed without notice.

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Mr Hawkes had already left the force. He is now placed on the College of Police's barred list and so cannot rejoin the service or other police bodies. He can apply to be removed from the list after five years.

According to a printed notice of the decision the video was held on Evidence.com, a platform used by law enforcement agencies to review digital files. Mr Hawkes made two recordings of the incident and shared them with an 'unverified third party' online.

It was found that Mr Hawkes had 'on the balance of probabilities' shared the material 'without any justification or policing purpose, irrelevant of intention'.

The Commissioner further wrote: "In addition, the apprehension and arrest of a person is a serious matter, and by sharing this footage with a person that was not legally entitled to possess it, former officer PC Hawkes has breached the Standards of Professional Behavour [sic] relating to Confidentiality. Former officer PC Hawkes has failed to protect the security and rights of members of the public, who are the very people that we are here to protect, thereby damaging trust, confidence and legitimacy in the City of London Police."

Superintendent Humphreys said: "The findings of the misconduct panel relate to an allegation that, in January 2023, Mr Hawkes breached our standards of professional behaviour.

"Sharing police evidence with a third party is a wholly unacceptable compromise of the integrity of policing and placing Mr Hawkes on the police barred list, will prevent him from ever working in policing again. Trust and confidence in policing is essential and we take every action necessary to maintain our professional standards and expect all officers and staff to serve with honesty and integrity."

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