Met Police Association Leader Fired Over Inappropriate WhatsApp Chats
The head of the Met’s Black Police Association was dismissed for misconduct involving racist and misogynistic messages in a group chat.
Charles Ehikioya, Met Police, WhatsApp, Croydon, UK
Croydon: So, the head of the Met’s Black Police Association, Charles Ehikioya, just got the boot. He was sacked for some pretty nasty stuff shared in a WhatsApp group.
Between 2017 and 2020, he was chatting with a former officer, Carlo Francisco, and they exchanged a bunch of offensive messages. We’re talking racist and misogynistic content here.
Francisco had already been dismissed for other misconduct back in 2022. The Met found that Ehikioya’s behavior was a serious breach of professional standards after a hearing last week.
Ehikioya claims he didn’t do anything wrong and says the allegations are made up because of his race and position. He’s planning to appeal, according to the BBC.
During the hearing, it came out that he sent a lot of inappropriate videos and memes, some of which were pretty graphic. He also received offensive messages but didn’t call out the bad behavior.
In one message, he even warned Francisco to stop sending explicit content, saying it could get them in trouble. But it seems he didn’t take his own advice.
The whole thing blew up when another officer’s phone was seized in December 2020, revealing the troubling chat. An investigation followed, but the Crown Prosecution Service decided it didn’t meet the criminal threshold.
Ehikioya was notified about the misconduct hearing in June 2024. He tried to defend himself by claiming the messages were faked, but the panel didn’t buy it.
The panel chairman said his actions were intentional and would seriously damage public trust in the Met. They were not impressed with his excuses.
In the end, it’s a big deal when someone in his position behaves like that, and the public deserves better.