A police officer has avoided punishment after being filmed on his own body-cam giving a member of the public cannabis.
The officer was put under investigation after a call-out to a disturbance at an address in Essex, where a woman had reporter her partner for damaging property in her home.
At the address, the officer was asked by the man in attendance for cannabis. The officer then asks the woman for the weed, before being thanked by the man for giving it to him.
Presumably, she had his weed and the officer retrieved it from her to give it to the man, possibly preventing the already-tense situation from escalating.
Sounds strange, right? Here’s what we know based on a news article published on EchoNews.co.uk.
The incident
“Upon arrival, the pair were separated and the constables obtained information from both about the allegations.
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“The woman was told by one of the officers no offences had been committed by her partner but he was going to be advised to leave the property.
“But before he left, the man was recorded on body-worn video asking the officer for cannabis.
The officer was heard on the footage asking the woman for the class B drug and then the man was recorded thanking him.
“A few hours later, the woman called Essex Police again to express her confusion about the information given by the officers.
“They returned later that morning and recorded an offence of criminal damage.
“The force themselves referred the incident to the IOPC.”
Insufficient evidence
A spokesman for the IOPC watchdog said: “During interview with our investigators the officer admitted knowingly giving a quantity of cannabis to a member of the public during his attendance at the property.
“The events surrounding this were captured to some degree on body worn video.”
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However, according to Nugent, the spokesman also said that while there was insufficient evidence for a tribunal, there did appear to be areas of the officer’s performance which required improvement.
It’s also stated in the article that “mitigating circumstances” meant the officer avoided a disciplinary hearing or a tribunal.
After reviewing the IOPC’s report, Essex Police agreed that both officers would receive “management action” in the form of a debrief and additional training.