Met officer who reported that monkey toy had been placed on desk of black colleague was accused of making it up, BBC says

A police officer was allegedly threatened with the sack after complaining about the racist treatment of a black colleague, according to reports.

BBC Radio 4’s Today programme said the Metropolitan police officer, who has not been named, spoke out after seeing a monkey soft toy in a police uniform placed on the colleague’s desk in their central London office.

An ID badge on the toy said “ERO” (evidential review officer), which was the same job title as the black officer.

The Asian officer raised his concerns with senior officers in 2013 but was accused of concocting the story. The BBC said the officer was subject to an investigation and told he could be sacked.

It took two years for the officer to be vindicated, after a Scotland Yard misconduct hearing found the whistleblower had not breached the standards of professional behaviour.

He took the case to an employment tribunal, alleging he had been racially discriminated against and victimised. The BBC reported that the officer received a settlement of £35,000 before the case was heard in full.

Richard Martin, the deputy assistant commissioner in charge of professionalism at the Met, said: “Over the last two years the Met has made significant investment in improving how we handle complaints made by our own staff linked to discrimination, bullying or harassment. We are committed to a system which everyone can be confident in and a genuine belief that it has fairness.

“We have long recognised that people do have concern that they fear being victimised if they raise a complaint, regardless of whether that fear is justified. That has never been acceptable and we continue to make it very clear to our staff that victimisation will never be tolerated, that it will be investigated, and will have serious repercussions if it occurs.

“For the last 18 months the officer in charge of the Met’s anti-corruption command personally oversaw the implementation of and now manages the new whistleblowing policy. This helps to give staff, who are graded as reporters of wrongdoing, confidence they can raise the most serious of issues and will receive support and protection.

“At the start of this year a new unit was formed within the Directorate of Professional Standards, which has oversight of all complaints – be those internal or external – that include an allegation of discrimination. This is to ensure that there is independent scrutiny of how these allegations are investigated and to embed fairness within the process.”