Why can police officers share hateful views on WhatsApp without fear of detection?

As another cache of appalling messages comes to light – this time, about the three Nottingham stabbing victims – Claire Cohen asks what will it take to prohibit the use of the private messaging platforms between serving officers

Ian Coates, Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar were fatally stabbed in Nottingham – and graphic details of their cases discussed by police colleagues on WhatsApp (PA)

A few months ago, I had a conversation with a female Met officer that has stayed with me. One of the worst aspects of working at her London police station, she said, was the incessant WhatsApping.

“It breaks down barriers between colleagues in a way that’s not professional,” she said. “Someone always goes too far, with something that’s sexist or racist. The boundary gets crossed.”

Few people could read about the messages sent by two Nottinghamshire police officers, in the wake of the murders of university students Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar, both 19, and caretaker Ian Coates, 65, in June last year, and not feel as though the concept of “boundaries” isn’t one that exists at all.