Met detective sacked for racism has been reinstated and sent on leadership course

Metropolitan Police officers patrolling the streets of London. Photograph: Khim Hoe Ng/Alamy

A Metropolitan police detective initially sacked for racism has been reinstated and sent on a leadership course, the Guardian has learned.

DS Neil Buckmaster was dismissed in 2021 after a discipline panel found him guilty of gross misconduct. The panel heard he had used racist terms, which he gave to avatars while playing an online football game.

A public complaint led to an investigation, and Buckmaster was sacked and placed on a list barring him from employment in policing, Scotland Yard announced.

When asked about Buckmaster’s continued services, the force said he had been dismissed but an appeal tribunal set aside the guilty finding.

The Met added that a new misconduct hearing date was set but its directorate of professional standards reviewed the case and decided not to proceed.

It also said the case added to the strength of the commissioner Mark Rowley’s argument that he, and not an appeals tribunal, should have the final say about who works in the Met.

Buckmaster is now back in the Met and is still a detective sergeant. In 2021 the Met said the officer’s behaviour was “offensive and utterly unacceptable”.

Buckmaster is based in south London and is understood to be assigned to a programme to help transform the Met, which is battling to win back public trust.

The former Met superintendent Leroy Logan said the case risked damaging public confidence and “that the Met has not moved on and tolerates this behaviour”.

He added: “We need to know why this person has been allowed back’; they just can’t leave it in limbo, hanging there.”

The Met said: “At a gross misconduct hearing in May 2021, a panel led by an independent legally qualified chair concluded that an officer had breached the standards of professional behaviour at the level of gross misconduct. They concluded that he should be dismissed without notice.

“The officer took this to the police appeals tribunal, which overturned the panel’s decision and reinstated him. A new misconduct hearing was scheduled but, following further investigation, the case was reviewed and the decision was made to discontinue the proceedings.​”

The Met added: “The commissioner has consistently called for senior officers to have the final say on who should or shouldn’t be allowed to remain in the police. Those who are held to account for standards in policing should have the powers to deliver the change that is needed.

“We made those representations strongly to the Home Office’s recent review on police misconduct and we are pleased they recommended that chief constables (or the commissioner in the case of the Met) should have a right of appeal following police appeals tribunal decisions. We look forward to the change in legislation that will bring that right into law.”

A spokesperson for ​the m​ayor’s o​ffice for p​olicing and crime said: “In April 2022, a police appeals tribunal approved an appeal against the decision of DS Neil Buckmaster’s misconduct hearing.

“The tribunal found that there had been unfairness due to shortcomings in the investigation which could have materially affected the finding, and that it should be looked at again by a new panel.”

A spokesperson later added: “The m​ayor’s o​ffice for p​olicing and crime have sought further clarification from the Met regarding this case.”

The Conservative candidate for London mayor, Susan Hall, told the Guardian: “Sadiq Khan and his office have failed to oversee the Met police properly for eight years and have ignored Londoners’ concerns about crime.

“We cannot restore trust and confidence in the police without improving the scrutiny it gets from City Hall.”

After the 2021 sacking, the then Met commander Paul Betts said: “Racism and discrimination in any form has absolutely no place at all in the Metropolitan Police Service, whether an officer is on or off duty.”