Two Met officers sacked for misconduct with black athletes Bianca Williams and her partner
Met officers were sacked for committing gross misconduct over the stop-and-search of black athletes Bianca Williams and her partner Ricardo Dos Santos. The athletes have mentioned that they were racially profiled.
In July 2020, Bianca Williams, 29, and Portugal Olympic sprinter Ricardo Dos Santos, 28, were handcuffed and searched outside their home in west London while their baby was inside the car.
While the couple was returning from a training session, both the athletes were stopped in Maida Vale by officers during an incident and subjected to a search based on suspicions of possessing drugs and weapons. However, no illicit substances or weapons were discovered.
While the checking was taking place, Ms Williams filmed the incident and their coach, the British former 100m Olympic champion Linford Christie, posted the video online.
As soon as the video went online, it sparked an outrage online and the footage was massively shared on social media.
As per the police watchdog, there were five officers involved in the misconduct case.
However, the allegation against three other officers was not proven. Further, the panel decided that PC Jonathan Clapham and PC Sam Franks had committed misconduct by violating integrity and honesty standards as the officers falsely claimed that they had detected the smell of cannabis during their search.
Adding to this, Chairwoman Cheiw Yin Jones said that there has been a breach in standards of professional behaviour due to false claims of the officers.
Hence, the entire case falls under the category of misconduct. Within hours of the disciplinary panel's decision, both the officers were sacked by the Met.
Further, after the decision was taken by the panel, in an interview with BBC, Ms
