Police officer shared ‘derogatory’ messages about vulnerable people

The Independent gives a short, accurate bulletin on two PSNI officers sacked after an ombudsman inquiry into how they filmed and photographed vulnerable people. It names the misconduct plainly for Officer A, but its account of Officer B is vaguer than the ombudsman's findings reported elsewhere. Nothing in it seriously misleads.

1. Softens one officer's misconduct

   Minor

   “making inappropriate comments”

   Why this matters

   The Independent describes Officer B's messages with the vague phrase "making inappropriate comments", although one sentence earlier it calls Officer A's remarks derogatory and sexualised.

   The impression it gives

   A reader may take Officer B's part as a lesser lapse in taste, unlike the derogatory and sexualised conduct of Officer A.

   The context

   Other coverage of the same ombudsman findings reports that Officer B photographed two vulnerable women and sent the images to Officer A with messages calling the women derogatory and often sexualised names. The article's vaguer wording plays this down.

   How we know

   • LBC reported“messages which referred to the women in derogatory and often sexualised terms”Police officers who recorded ‘utterly despicable’ videos of vulnerable people while on duty sacked (opens in a new tab)
   • Elsewhere in the article“derogatory and sexualised remarks”