Four Police Service of Northern Ireland officers suspended in racist text probe
Four PSNI officers have been suspended over alleged racist and sectarian text messages.
The officers were suspended from duty on Thursday.
A PSNI spokeswoman said this case was not linked to the ongoing Metropolitan Police investigations during which eight officers and a civilian staff member were suspended after complaints of racism.
The internal investigation has been launched by the Police Service of Northern Ireland’s professional standards department after the allegedly offensive messages were discovered during the course of a separate internal inquiry.
The force said the inquiry would be robust.
The PSNI said in a statement: “The Police Service is proud of its reputation for delivering a personal, professional and protective policing service to the people of Northern Ireland and we expect our staff to behave ethically and with the utmost integrity at all times both on and off duty.
“Any officer who fails to abide by the high standards of behaviour expected of all officers as laid out in our code of ethics can expect to be rigorously investigated.”
