Rude and offensive police disciplined in record numbers

Record numbers of police officers are being extremely rude and offensive towards the public.

Forty-one officers in England and Wales were sacked or disciplined in the year up to April and a further 115 were given written warnings for insulting and discourteous behaviour. The number of severe cases, in which disciplinary action is taken, is the highest since records began 17 years ago, while the total of upheld complaints is the biggest in a decade and the second highest since 1985.

Among the complaints that were upheld are cases in which officers have sworn at members of the public, been racially abusive, tried to abuse their position of authority or issued threats.

Ian Bynoe, the deputy head of the Police Complaints Authority, which compiled the figures, condemned the rise yesterday and said that there was a "substantially high number of complaints of discourteous and rude behaviour and language". He called for the worst offenders to be sacked.

The number of officers charged with disciplinary offences rose to 41 last year from 15 in the previous year. Overall, 156 complaints for incivility were upheld in the year 2001-02, only three fewer than in 1990, which saw the highest total recorded to date.

Mr Bynoe, said: "The authority continues to see a substantially high number of complaints of discourteous and rude behaviour and language, a significant number of which lead to disciplinary action and, in the worse cases, dismissal.

"Police service managers must tackle these problems if policing is to earn public trust.

"Supervisors have to monitor police staff who attract complaints and intervene, even where conflicts are resolved informally or investigated inconclusively.

"Managers must also deal with police staff who are rude to their colleagues, since these are likely also to be rude to the public."

He added: "For the persistent uncivil officer, there are the poor performance and disciplinary procedures and these may need to be used to ensure they leave the service."

He stressed: "We are not talking of a ubiquitous problem – it's a significant but small per centage of officers who are discourteous.

Asked why there was such a relatively high level of abuse, Mr Bynoe said: "There's a greater tolerance for rudeness and it is bound to have rubbed off on police officers."

The PCA highlighted a number of cases involving rude officers. They included:

* An off-duty police officer refused to take off his motorcycle crash helmet in a shop. When challenged by a store security officer, he became threatening and abusive and knocked off the guard's hat. He threatened to tell his fellow officers not to respond to emergency calls from the store and told the assistant: "That f***ing security guard can just piss off."

* A constable was forced to resign after he was called to a reported theft from an office and was rude to the victim about what was stolen and suggested that it was probably taken by someone who was black.

* An officer was fined after he tried to kiss a woman whose case he was investigating.

* An off-duty officer went to his municipal council to complain about proposals to build a play area in his local park. The council worker complained that during the discussion the officer called him a liar and was insulting and abusive.