A total of 14 officers were sacked by Avon & Somerset Police for gross misconduct in 2024.

They included a pair of female constables whose appalling treatment of a vulnerable woman trying to jump off Clifton Suspension Bridge was featured in the Channel 4 documentary series ‘To Catch A Copper’ at the start of the year and made national headlines.

The most senior officer to be dismissed without notice following a misconduct hearing was a Bristol inspector, the former president of the National Black Police Association who specialised in tackling violence against females, for punching two women.

Another cop based in the city had been nominated for a prestigious bravery award only the year before for saving two people hanging from a window on the top floor of a burning block of flats, but he was sacked after investigators found he sent an unsolicited photo to a female colleague.

Other cases involved offensive racist messages to colleagues on social media, male officers who had inappropriate sexual relationships with vulnerable women, and police who simply could not be bothered to investigate blatant criminal offences.

All faced misconduct hearings, the vast majority held in public, which were either before Chief Constable Sarah Crew or a panel led by a Legally Qualified Chair (LQC), a position soon to be abolished amid major reforms of the police misconduct system.

The previous Conservative government decided to shake-up how dodgy officers are dealt with following a series of scandals and tragedies that shattered public confidence in the profession.

Police leaders had been pushing for the changes to give them more authority to dismiss rogue members of their ranks.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service continues to challenge orders granting anonymity to officers accused of misconduct because it is in the clear public interest that they should be named.

And this year only the two in the Clifton Suspension Bridge incident had their identities shielded from the public, while only one had their hearing held in private and was then subsequently allowed to be named.

Both of those cases were overseen by an LQC, while every hearing before the chief constable was held in public and the officer identified.

Clifton Suspension Bridge

The most shocking case of the year was featured in the Channel 4 documentary series To Catch A Copper a few months earlier, where two female officers treated a vulnerable woman attempting to jump off Clifton Suspension Bridge like a ‘caged animal’.

To compound the outrage, both were granted anonymity, so we still cannot tell you who they are, despite our attempts to challenge the decision by the LQC to protect their identities.

‘PCs A and B’ treated the woman in a ‘cruel and degrading way’ and with excessive force when one of them PAVA pepper-sprayed her at close range in a police car, having momentarily removed a spit hood and then replaced it again, during the arrest, the misconduct hearing was told.

The panel ruled in August that they would have been sacked without notice had they not already resigned.

The pair ‘laughed at her suffering’, made fun of the female and were sarcastic, condescending or antagonistic during the incident, which was aired on the TV series using their bodyworn video footage.

The officers were called to the bridge on December 4, 2021, where the woman, who had been drinking, had tried to climb the buttress wall and jump.

PC A stood on her arm as she was being handcuffed on the ground before grabbing her hair and then her throat.

After PC B pepper-sprayed the woman, her colleague dragged her out of the car while handcuffed, causing her to land heavily on the ground.

The LQC said: “The panel concluded that Miss A received cruel and degrading treatment from former officers A and B in breach of her human rights.

“Miss A is a disabled person by virtue of her mental health illness.

“The failure to make reasonable adjustments for her is discrimination under the Equality Act.

“The panel concluded Miss A was treated by the officers not like a human being but instead like a caged animal.

“Their behaviour discredits the police service and undermines public confidence in it because a reasonable member of the public would be justifiably appalled by their treatment of Miss A.

“The panel concluded that they failed to ensure their behaviour and language could not be reasonably perceived to be abusive, oppressive, harassing, bullying, victimising or offensive by the public.”

The LQC said the officers were rude and dismissive and failed to show any empathy or compassion despite Miss A crying and screaming.

She said: “There was deliberate or gratuitous violence.”

The LQC said that on the journey to the police station, the woman told them she could not breathe but neither officer responded to this, which the panel found ‘concerning’.

They did not stop the car or take off the spit hood to check for eye injuries from the PAVA or to help her breathe.

The LQC said: “The deployment of PAVA was wholly unnecessary and disproportionate to the threat posed.”

Deputy Chief Constable Jon Reilly said afterwards: “The actions of these two former officers were disgraceful and quite rightly they should never be allowed to work in policing or law enforcement again.

“The bodyworn video evidence speaks for itself.

“I’ve watched the footage and I’m as shocked and distressed by it as any member of the public.

“I know our officers and staff were horrified too.

“It was inhumane behaviour from the very people the public turn to in their moment of need.”

PC Justin Robbie

A Bristol police officer who was nominated for a bravery award for saving two men hanging from a window on the 16th floor of a burning block of flats was sacked without notice in October for sending an unsolicited image to a female colleague.

PC Justin Robbie was found to have committed gross misconduct towards a fellow Avon & Somerset Police officer.

A tribunal panel found complaints of sexual impropriety involving inappropriate requests, communication and an unsolicited image were proven.

In May 2023, the officer was nominated for the National Police Bravery Awards for running into Twinnell House in Easton after a blaze broke out in a top-floor flat in September 2022, leaving one man dead.

PC Robbie had no protective equipment but, assisted by a firefighter, saved two other men by hauling them into the window below where they were clinging.

Chief Constable Sarah Crew hailed it at the time as an “act of true heroism”.

She said: “I’m extremely proud to have someone of PC Robbie’s character and professionalism working for Avon & Somerset Police – his actions on that night exemplify the very best of British policing.”

The misconduct hearing was held in private but the LQC overseeing the case later allowed him to be identified publicly.

Inspector Tola Munro

The most senior Avon & Somerset Police officer to be sacked at a misconduct hearing this year was Bristol Inspector Tola Munro.

The officer, former president of the National Black Police Association who specialised in tackling violence against females, punched two women.

The LQC said the case was a ‘terrible irony’ because of his longtime work to protect women and girls from violence.

Insp Munro ‘completely lost control of himself’ and threw and then dragged a woman to the ground while off-duty and punched her in the face two or three times, leaving a bruise to her cheek, before hitting another female who tried to intervene on May 6, 2023.

The LQC said that although the assault was not premeditated, ‘once it started it should and could have stopped sooner’.

She said: “There was distress to both females, although we are unable to say this was psychological harm.

“We have held back from labelling the violence as gratuitous but it was deliberate.”

The LQC said that part of the officer’s evidence was ‘at best misleading, if not a downright lie’.

Detective Constable Simon Jones

A Bristol detective had the unenvious distinction of being found guilty of gross misconduct not once but twice in 2024.

A tribunal in September ruled that ex-Detective Constable Simon Jones, 54, a ‘calculating opportunist’, had inappropriate sexual relationships with two vulnerable women he met while investigating cases and would have been dismissed had he not already retired.

He persuaded one of his victims to buy a burner phone from Argos to hide evidence of their relationship.

One of the females lent the detective money as a house deposit.

The other denied there was any relationship but the panel found there was overwhelming evidence, including numerous times data from his iPad was pinpointed at her address overnight as well as hotels she had stayed at.

Ex-Det Con Jones lied to his line manager and Avon & Somerset Police’s counter-corruption unit about their relationship.

Analysis of his work and personal phones revealed flirtatious messages with both women.

The officer was arrested in 2021 over the allegations but the Crown Prosecution Service decided there was insufficient evidence for criminal charges.

In April, a misconduct hearing into a separate matter also ruled he would have been dismissed had he still been serving.

He sent a fellow Bristol detective a WhatsApp message to say two colleagues who were late to a briefing got away with it because they were Black.

PC Benjamin Kirk

A former police constable who was part of an ‘abhorrent and grossly offensive’ WhatsApp group chat called Band of Brothers that shared derogatory, racist and pornographic content was banned from policing in August.

Ex-PC Kirk, who was based in Bridgwater but resigned from the force before his misconduct hearing, was a member of the group with five other Civil Nuclear Constabulary (CNC) officers.

He was found to have committed gross misconduct by sending offensive racist messages, as well as failing to challenge or report any of the messages sent by the others.

The panel ruled that he would have been sacked had he not already resigned.

The investigation was carried out by the Independent Office for Police Conduct which analysed more than 1,400 messages in the group between June 2020 and February 2021.

The former constable transferred to Avon & Somerset Police as a student officer from CNC in October 2020.

Offensive messages included comments comparing the humane killing of an animal by ex-PC Kirk with the death of George Floyd, a Black man murdered by a US police officer.

The former constable’s hearing was held by Avon & Somerset Police and that of the other five was conducted by the CNC which decided they too would have all been sacked had they still been serving.

PC Ross Knox

A firearms officer was dismissed in May for having sex outdoors with a vulnerable woman.

PC Ross Knox, based in South Gloucestershire, sexually exploited the female despite being told she suffered from mental health issues including bipolar and borderline personality disorder and had been the victim of both childhood abuse and domestic violence.

The married dad, who was in the force for 23 years, had sex outdoors with the woman at least four times while off duty between April 2022 and January 2023 and failed to safeguard her when she said she wanted high-risk sexual encounters with other men she did not know.

He pursued her for sex and sent her photos of himself in uniform and with his gun to encourage her to meet him, as well as degrading messages.

Chief Constable Sarah Crew found gross misconduct proven.

The officer had previously been warned about improper relationships with vulnerable women in 2019.

PC Alexander Anderson

An ex-constable who left a vulnerable woman feeling ‘worthless’ and unable to trust officers again after he carried out simulated rape with her was barred from the profession.

PC Alexander Alderson, based in Weston-super-Mare, met the female online and went to her home to engage in sexual activity called consensual non-consent sex.

The woman, a domestic violence victim who suffered from mental health issues, told the misconduct hearing that she agreed to play the part of a rape victim as a form of self-harm ‘a bit like if I used a knife to cut myself’.

PC Anderson also sent her three sexually explicit images of himself while on duty wearing a stab-proof vest at Weston Gateway police station in January 2023, along with ‘degrading and demeaning’ messages about his other sexual encounters.

PC Connor Shefford

An ‘arrogant and cocky’ former police officer who made crude sexual remarks to a female colleague while drunk at a work Christmas party in Bristol was found to have committed gross misconduct in September.

PC Connor Shefford also kissed a 5ft female bouncer on the cheek as he was being ejected from a venue, having placed his hands on her arms and told her: “I could pick you up and throw you,” although this was deemed as not aggressive and resulted in the lesser finding of misconduct.

The officer, who was based in South Gloucestershire, would have been dismissed without notice had he not already resigned and his behaviour was sexually motivated, ‘persistent and unwanted’, the misconduct panel decided.

The case related to a shift night out on December 17, 2022, when the ex-constable went to three venues and became ‘extremely intoxicated’, including ending up face down on the street while walking to one venue.

He behaved inappropriately towards a door supervisor at the first location, The Mount Without on St Michael’s Hill, and to a female constable in The Brass Pig bar on Clifton Triangle.

PC Rose Wilson

A ‘dismissive and uncaring’ police officer who failed to investigate two assaults in Bristol and then lied to bosses to cover her tracks was fired in September.

PC Rose Wilson, 30, discriminated against and lied to 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 or investigate and trying to close their cases without making any inquiries, a panel decided.

The South Gloucestershire-based constable filed ‘false and misleading’ reports on the constabulary 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 did not.

Both incidents, which amounted to gross misconduct, happened in Horfield in 2022.

The first was a neighbourly altercation where a woman alleged she had been assaulted by a man next door but became frustrated that the officer was not listening to her.

The panel decided PC Wilson ‘adopted a dismissive tone towards the woman’ and rolled her eyes towards her colleague at the scene.

It concluded that in the second incident two months later, she tried to shut down the case by telling the Black victim that it was him who had committed a crime.

The panel concluded PC Wilson did not want to investigate either case and her behaviour amounted to an ‘abuse of position’.

PC James Stone and PC Daniel Sweet

Two constables were sacked in May for ‘effectively concealing’ a Bristol alleyway strangling and robbery of a vulnerable woman.

The pair acted more like ‘minicab drivers’ than police in doing nothing but take the victim back to the BRI where she was an in-patient.

They were called to the scene of the attack in Drummond Road, St Pauls, at 4.30am on November 11, 2022, but despite the woman telling them she had been strangled and robbed of £280 and a mobile phone by a violent man known to police, they failed to pursue any inquiries.

It was only when she later reported the assault that an investigation was started and it emerged that the officers had not recorded a crime, taken any notes or marked their bodyworn camera video as containing evidence.

PC Tamsin Devlin

An officer who failed to arrest a stalker after he broke into his ex’s house and was dishonest with colleagues about the incident was sacked without notice in February.

PC Tamsin Devlin, based in Taunton, admitted misconduct but denied gross misconduct or doing anything wrong and insisted she had not been dishonest, although she accepted she should have arrested the man.

But the panel found dishonesty and gross misconduct proven.

The constable and a junior colleague attended a domestic abuse incident following a 999 call from the woman at the house in February 2023.

The mother-of-two’s former partner had refused to accept their relationship was over and climbed into the home through a bedroom window before hiding in a garden treehouse when police arrived.

He slipped past the constables to get back into the house, burst into a bathroom where the woman had locked herself in, pushed her into the bathtub and grabbed the family dog by the neck before trying to leave with it.

But PC Devlin failed to arrest him and told her young female colleague that no offences had been committed and repeated this to the control room despite knowing it was false, the panel concluded.

The man returned to the address the following morning and was arrested by other officers before a subsequent guilty plea and conviction for stalking, assault and criminal damage.

PC Oliver Hampson

Former PC Oliver Hampson behaved as if he was ‘above the law’ by working as a driver for private ambulance companies while still employed by Avon & Somerset Police, a misconduct panel concluded.

The ex-officer, based in Weston-super-Mare, had been denied permission by bosses to have a second job but continued to do so and tried to cover it up.

He also sent messages suggesting that he knew secondary employment was not allowed and could lead to his dismissal.

The panel found that he drove his private vehicle while off duty behind an unmarked police car using its blue lights and sirens which was responding to an emergency, overtaking traffic which had moved aside for the police vehicle despite having no legal authority to do so.

Chief Constable Sarah Crew, chairing the hearing, decided he would have been sacked if he had not already resigned.